Valentine's Day
by Umei no Mai
Summary: A twist of fate causes Vincent Valentine to be born female. Having escaped Nibelheim she wants her son Sephiroth back, professor Hojo dead, has taken an interest in Deepground and will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. Worse still, Chaos is right behind her and he has plans of his own. Nothing will ever be the same again...
1. Chaos Theory

**Chaos Theory**

The Lifestream, Mako, is the very lifeblood of the planet. It is the source of all new life that comes into being on Gaia. It nurtures new creatures into being and all that dies is returned to it. It contains all the memories, knowledge and emotions of every living being that has ever passed away.

In one particular time and place the Lifestream was depleted almost to the point of killing the planet, but the multiverse is a vast and varied thing. In another time and place, long before scientists ever considered using Mako as a power source, there was a... hiccup.

A change as small and insignificant as the displacement of air from the flapping of a butterfly's wings.

Nine months later, Dr Grimoire Valentine's wife gave birth to his first and only child, a child who he had decided would be named Vincent. However, due to that tiny, insignificant fluctuation in the Lifestream, the child was female.

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><p>I honestly don't know if I'll be continuing this very far; it's essentially a plotbunny at the moment. If you like it, review and it may go further.<p> 


	2. Overlap

**Overlap**

Vincent Valentine never gave much thought to the fact that her name was inappropriate for a person of her gender. She'd been told early in life the story of how the doctors supervising her mother's pregnancy had made that one-in-two-and-a-half-thousand mistake in determining her gender, which in turn led to her father writing 'Vincent Valentine' on her birth certificate before the midwife could inform him that he had a daughter rather than a son. The mix-up wasn't something she ever bothered to dwell on. She was an only child -her mother was incapable of having any more children due to the circumstances of her birth- and rarely saw her mother anyway, as said lady had no interest whatsoever in raising her daughter.

Grimoire Valentine on the other hand refused to leave her upbringing to nannies and tutors despite not having the faintest idea about girls, himself being the only child of a widower. The scientist therefore raised Vincent as he himself had been raised: as the son of the house and a male of a well-to-do family. Vincent adored his father, so she was perfectly happy to wear boys clothes, run around playing soldiers, study hard and learn how to hunt and shoot. Having not the faintest idea of how women were supposed to behave, she copied her only role model in everything from speech patterns to attitude.

Her slender, wiry build and lean features further disguised her gender from her peers to the point that by the time she was twelve the only people aware that Vincent Valentine should have been called 'Victoria' was her doctor and her parents, although the latter forgot most of the time. Vincent had been called 'son' by Valentine senior for as long as she could remember and her mother preferred to ignore the fact that she had a child at all.

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><p>When Vincent was fifteen the ShinRa Manufacturing Works discovered how Mako could be used to create electrical energy and began its rapid expansion across the planet. During this expansion phase she was scouted to join the Turks, ShinRa's private security corps. The man in the blue suit who interviewed her explained that Vincent's superb marksmanship and natural stealth had caught their attention, leading to them making a very generous offer. Said offer came with an equally generous salary and -since the work looked interesting- Vincent agreed, signing away her future to the company.<p>

Her gender did not actually come to light until much later, by which point both her partner Veld and her boss agreed to keep it under wraps. The truth never even reached the head of the Department of Public Safety and was not written down anywhere. Vincent attended mandatory medical checkups under a female alias and had them entered into the system separately. This total secrecy and necessary subterfuge helped Vincent Valentine to become the company's ideal of the ultimate Turk, totally unknown outside her official -and threadbare- dossier and a legend within the corporation by the time she was twenty.

Her cover was facilitated by the simple fact that puberty arrived late for her and did very little. Vincent was unusually tall for a woman -six foot in bare feet- and was lithe and muscular rather than soft and curvaceous. Her bust was almost non-existent and calculated usage of testosterone boosters in her late teens ensured that her face was firmly on the line between male and female. With short, naturally untidy hair and wearing her blue Turk suit, Vincent Valentine looked male. In a slinky dress with her hair styled and face made up, she looked completely female, albeit with the kind of body supermodels would kill for. Perfect androgyny.

This ability to become someone totally unconnected to her Turk persona only enhanced the infamy of Valentine's ability to disappear, enabling her to act just as well within a crowd as from the shadows. Said infamy further enhanced her already stellar reputation of being the 'Top Turk' which, when she was twenty five, led to her being assigned to guard professor Hojo, chief scientist on ShinRa's new top secret project in Nibelheim.

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><p>The plot bunny continues its rampage. Soon differences will be spawned and change will be irreversible.<p>

EDIT 2 June: those pronouns need to be watched...


	3. Orbital Density

**Orbital Density**

The first year in Nibelhein was fairly dull. Vincent shadowed professor Hojo, supervised the comings and goings of the laboratory staff, explored the mountains around the village, killed the monsters that come near the ShinRa mansion and got to know Lucretia Crescent, professor Gast's assistant. Lucretia was tall, charming and very beautiful and Vincent gradually developed an infatuation and fell in love. Biology may have dictated that the cross-dressing Turk be naturally drawn to men, but her upbringing had conditioned her to see other women as sexually attractive as well. That Lucretia found Vincent similarly alluring was another plus, but the relationship did not become particularly intimate as the Turk was unwilling to let the pretty scientist in on the truth of her gender.

Then at the beginning of the second year in Nibelhein Lucretia discovered that Vincent was a Valentine and their relationship went pear-shaped. Lucretia had been Vincent's father's assistant on the Chaos Project and felt responsible for the man's death as Grimoire had thrown himself in front of her when his research exploded. Vincent had known this already -she did read the background checks- and tried to reassure Lucretia that she wasn't to blame. This however only seemed to compound the scientist's guilt, driving her further away from Vincent. So much further away, in fact, that Lucretia attached herself to professor Hojo.

Vincent had decided early on in her time at the mansion that she did not like professor Hojo in the slightest. Te man had no morals whatsoever and was a complete sociopath, doing all manner of repugnant things in the name of so-called 'science'. Worse, the Turk suspected that the professor had somehow discovered her true gender. Vincent may have been ShinRa's prize Turk, but Hojo was the company's golden goose. If the professor decided he wanted Vincent as his newest test subject the Turk wasn't sure her status and position within the company would protect her.

At times like this Vincent really wished she had Veld there to back her up. Instead she made do with sending emails back to her partner voicing her unease.

When Lucretia became pregnant a few months later Hojo immediately expressed a desire to experiment on the unborn foetus. Vincent objected quite fiercely, but since it was Lucretia's body and her and Hojo's child the Turk had to accept that there was nothing to be done but put up with it. She did however start to monitor -and keep copies of- Hojo's lab notes and hack into the professor's computer to find out what else the foul man was up to. These files were forwarded to secure storage in a Turk safe-house, inaccessible to anyone without the passwords.

What Vincent found and stole copies of was not in the slightest bit pleasant; Hojo belonged in a maximum security prison, not a sponsored laboratory. Nonetheless, the Turk kept her peace for the company's sake until Lucretia became very ill in the seventh month of her pregnancy. While trying to keep her mind off the pretty scientist's deteriorating condition Vincent stumbled across a file describing the parentage of 'specimen S', which was Hojo's designation for the unborn child. What the Turk learned and stole in those scant minutes had her loading her gun, prepping her Materia and storming down to the lab in a blind fury.

The baby in Lucretia's womb was Vincent's. Hojo had discovered the Turk's gender from studying a stolen cell sample and decided that a male version of her would make an excellent specimen and the perfect host for the S-cells the professor was studying. Hojo had therefore used his own Y chromosome in conjunction with two-thirds of Vincent's genome and padded out the difference with genetic material from Lucretia. The foetus -'specimen S'- was the result, healthy despite being injected with alien cells while still in the womb.

On the way down the stairs Vincent decided to call her son Sephiroth, after the manifestations of Gaia: She'd liked the old legends as a child. The Turk barged into the laboratory and slammed the door behind her, eyes narrowing as Hojo looked up from his notes.

The subsequent fight was messy, loud and violent, destroying half of the equipment in the main lab and only ending when the professor got off a lucky shot that hit the Turk full in the chest. Vincent hung on grimly to consciousness to the bitter end, rasping out her demands with one hand fisted in the mad scientist's coat:

"Give me... my son. Give... Sephiroth to..."

The world went black as she heard Hojo murmur, "What a good name for the manifestation of my lovely Jenova. Sephiroth he will be."

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><p>Women think differently to men, so they react differently to situations. Hojo set off Vincent's 'over-protective mother' instincts, which he will later come to regret. Oh, and Sephiroth has a rather different parentage.<p>

Edited for spelling mistakes. Oops.


	4. Strange Attractors

**Strange Attractors**

Lucretia Crescent was feeling fatalistic. Her child had been taken away from her to be experimented on in the name of science, her body was deteriorating from exposure to S-cells harvested from JENOVA and sweet, forgiving Vincent Valentine whose only crime was trying to look after her had been shot and was being experimented on by professor Hojo. The professor had managed to modify the Turk so his body was more resilient and no longer needed to be fed, then done something to Vincent that triggered spontaneous metamorphoses in response to external stimuli. Sadly, throughout these experiments Vincent remained comatose and mentally unresponsive. After three months Hojo pronounced 'Specimen V' a failure and left him to die.

Knowing that her death was immanent and that Vincent had only been reduced to this because he attempted to protect her and her baby -whom Hojo had named 'Sephiroth'- Lucretia took the Turk's body to her own private laboratory and infused her dying friend with the Chaos-tainted Mako she had saved from Grimoire Valentine's failed project in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save the man's life.

Her gamble proved a mixed success: Vincent's body did indeed heal and woke, but it was animated by Chaos, herald of the WEAPON Omega, rather than the Turk she still loved in her heart. Chaos promptly wreaked her lab and tried to kill her, body morphing and falling apart as a result of overwhelming concentrations of chaotic energies running through the tissues. Lucretia's life was prolonged a little further purely by chance when she ducked behind the bench where the Protomateria Valentine Senior had been studying was on display. Chaos flinched away from the glowing sphere, giving her an idea of how to stop the mad creature.

Implanting the Protomateria in Vincent's chest next to his heart -right where Hojo shot him- halted and swiftly reversed the Chaos-borne degradation but did not immediately wake the Turk, although the improved vital signs suggest he may eventually wake. Her goal achieved, Lucretia used her observations to complete her thesis on Chaos and the WEAPON Omega and sent it off after printing out a copy for Vincent to read when he wakes up. Her dear friend will need the information if his unusual new appearance is anything to go by.

All loose ends suitably tidied away, Lucretia went looking for Hojo to tell him of her success. Now she can die content.

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><p>Vincent Valentine clawed her way back to consciousness. The Turk had fully expected to die and return to the Lifestream, but looking back on it Hojo would never just allow a possible test specimen to die, especially when he was already interested in their genetic potential.<p>

Her whole body ached, her senses were going haywire and her body felt wrong. Blinking, Vincent sat up on the operating table and looked at herself.

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><p><em>In another time and place a different Vincent Valentine would be revolted by his beastly form, conclude it was a divine punishment for his failure to protect Lucretia and her child and fall into depression.<em>

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><p>In Lucretia's laboratory underneath the ShinRa mansion Vincent honestly did not care right now that she was a twelve-foot-tall Galian Beast of indeterminate gender; she wanted her son back and her baby Sephiroth was all that mattered. Stumbling to her feet as her body reverted back to normal -well mostly normal anyway- Vincent Valentine ignored her peculiar new and semi-organic black and red outfit, the golden gauntlet on her left arm, the voice in her head, the way the dim light burned her eyes and the pungent cleaning smells that irritated her nose. She had to get to Sephiroth. Sephiroth had to be protected.<p>

The ex-Turk went through the half-empty laboratory complex like an avenging angel of death, dispatching all who crossed his path without a second thought as his tired brain reverted to basic Turk protocol for hostage retrieval. Doors were thrown off hinges, tables were shattered and expensive equipment was mangled beyond repair without a second thought. The voice in her head seemed delighted by the wanton destruction and was joined by a further two who joined in a chorus urging her onwards, heedless of the thick fog of knockout gas and the rain of tranquilliser darts. As Vincent became sluggish she was pushed aside by the first voice -_my name is Chaos, little vessel, remember it_- who continues to wreak havoc for several minutes longer before the massive overdose of sedatives finally kicked in, making her body collapse to the floor.

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><p><em>In another time and place, Vincent Valentine would shut himself in a coffin in the basement of the ShinRa mansion in Nibelhein as a self-imposed penance for his perceived sins.<em>

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><p>Professor Hojo locked the unconscious Specimen V into a secure coffin in the basement and immediately fled Nibelhein with JENOVA and Specimen S, his greatest work. His important notes had already been forwarded to his database in the ShinRa Science Department in the new city of Midgar, so he didn't need anything else. More pragmatically, the professor didn't want to be anywhere near the berserk Specimen V when heshe/it woke up again. While it had been interesting that the Specimen's limit break metamorphoses were of differing gender to the original body, further study of the failure was without merit.

Specimen S had far more potential.

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><p>Point of view bounces around a bit in this chapter. Note that Lucretia believes Vincent to be male and that Hojo is unaware that 'Specimen V' has retained full usage of her faculties. The professor thinks she's just an animal now.<p> 


	5. Minimum Complexity

**Minimum Complexity**

Waking up in a coffin would ruin anyone's day. As Vincent was waking after being sedated by a mad scientist, had a voice in her head, disturbing whispers in her hind-brain and her recently awakened motherhood instincts were screaming blue murder, her reaction to the small, dark and enclosed space she was locked in could be considered fairly mild. In that she only hammered the lid above her face with her fists and roared her extreme displeasure at the situation to the world in general.

Unfortunately for the ex-Turk the coffin was very sturdy: Her fists barely dented the lid. No-one came to see what was causing the hullabaloo either, nor could she hear any background people noises, which suggested that Hojo and his goons were no longer in residence.

More significantly, Vincent had no idea how much time had passed between getting shot and waking up different on that operating table, let alone the amount of time between being sedated and getting to where she was now.

_Five or six months between being shot and my implantation, little vessel, if the female scientist was to be believed._

Vincent blinked. She vaguely remembered the voice that had introduced itself as Chaos from her previous awakening, but hadn't really thought it was real. Or paid it any particular attention. What had Hojo done to her that had resulted in hearing voices in her head?

_I am not a manifestation of insanity, little vessel; I am not a part of you at all. I am Chaos, herald of the WEAPON Omega and it was the woman who locked me within your mortal flesh._

This Chaos person sounded suspiciously like the subject of Lucretia's thesis and Vincent's late father's research. So, Lucretia had implanted Chaos -who sounded far too much like a summon of some sort- into Vincent somehow, which had resulted in the former Turk waking up shortly after. About half a year after getting shot in the first place, if the information Chaos had given her was accurate. Which meant that Hojo had had her unconscious body to experiment on to his heart's content for about half a year.

Vincent shivered. One _day_ at the sociopath professor's not-so-tender mercies was twenty-four hours too many. What could the madman have come up with to do with her in _six months_? Did she even want to know?

_I suspect much has been done, little vessel. You are more resistant to damage than other humans if your laboratory rampage is any indication, as well as stronger, faster and more sensitive to your environment. It is also evident that you do not need to eat, or you would be experiencing hunger. Your body has fully regenerated from what damage it took and is in perfect health. These modifications make you an adequate vessel, though still a humiliatingly limited one for such as I._

The former Turk ignored the complaints of her new and probably permanent tenant. Had Hojo been trying to create some kind of super soldier? Was that the real purpose of 'Project J'? If so, she could understand why the company had been willing to sponsor it. Not to mention just take Hojo's word for it that one of their best Turks had died in a 'laboratory accident' without following it up.

_They may indeed have been trying to create a superior warrior, but the independent personality fragments you contain are probably not what this Hojo had in mind for a better soldier. Soldiers are grunts who follow orders unquestioningly; your little extras make you delightfully unpredictable. Which is likely why you are here rather than still in his care._

Joy. So Vincent was a _failed_ experiment. A being that went by 'Chaos would naturally appreciate unpredictability but being unable to control herself would be dangerous if she wanted to get Sephiroth back. Having 'independent personality fragments' could be dangerous if they tried to hurt her son. How many did she have and what were they like? She knew one was probably the twelve-foot beast she had first woken up as, but the others?

_You have three, which does _not_ include me, C_haos said with a long-suffering sigh,_ and they are very poor company. The Gallian Beast, which you have already met, Hellmasker and Death Gigas. The first is animated by pure animal instinct, the second is all bloodlust and the thrill of slaughter and the third is just a ball of brute force and single-mindedness given physical form._

Vincent winced. They sounded charming. Considering that Chaos called them personality fragments, they were probably independent manifestations of her drives with none of the intelligence and restraint needed to properly channel them. What would happen if one of them emerged and took over, like Chaos had in the lab?

_Destruction, mayhem and death, little vessel, in varying proportions depending on which one rises to the fore. What else?_

The former Turk frowned within her coffin. She needed a plan, she needed information and most of all she needed out. The coffin lid _had_ dented when she punched it, but too many hits might deform it to the point that it jammed rather than removing it like she wanted. It might slide off sideways...

… but it didn't. It was very firmly secured from the outside. Since escape was currently impossible Vincent decided to plan. Of course it was a very tentative plan, given the utter dearth of information available in her current situation, but it was better than nothing. She could -and would- fine-tune it properly once she got out and was able to properly gather information again.

First, read everything pertaining to Hojo's experiments on her still in the mansion, be it on paper or in the computers, and check Lucretia's laboratory for information on Chaos. Second, find out what has been happening inside ShinRa and what else the company and the Turks had been up to since she fell out of contact. Third, find and take back Sephiroth. That last objective would probably give her an opportunity to kill Hojo, but if not that was the forth item on her to-do list. The file copies in the Costa del Sol safe house would help since they were proof of parentage and would help her legitimately gain custody, but if there were problems she was perfectly prepared to do things the hard way. That the company was well aware that Turk Vincent was indeed capable of shooting, stabbing or otherwise removing any and all obstacles between herself and her objectives should prevent things getting too confrontational though. She may be listed as a sharp-shooter on her official file but her true specialisation was assassination.

But before Vincent could do any of that she needed to get out of the coffin, which was most definitely locked from the outside. Perhaps if she made enough noise someone from the village would come looking. Or, failing that, send news to ShinRa that something was making a Gaia-cursed racket it their mansion?

It couldn't hurt to try.

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><p>Next person we meet will be Cloud, I think. This story was inspired by <strong>A Box full of History <strong>and **Butterfly Effect**, both truly excellent stories. Themes present in both may surface in my own story, since imitation in the sincerest form of flattery.


	6. Unstable Trajectories

**Unstable Trajectories **

Cloud Strife was not a happy eight-year-old. In the spring the mayor of Nibelhien's wife had died and their daughter, Tifa, had decided that her mother was on the other side of the Nibel mountains. The seven-year-old village princess insisted on going to get her mother back regardless of how dangerous the mountains were -Cloud _knew_ there were dragons up there- even if her friends were too scared to follow her.

Cloud knew that he should have stopped Tifa or told an adult what she wanted to do; dead meant 'not coming back ever' not just 'gone far away'. He knew that because his father was dead, had died even before Cloud could get to know him. Still, he couldn't just persuade the girl since he was terribly shy and a bit of an outsider in the village and the unwritten rule of childhood was 'do not rat out other children to adults', so instead he just followed behind her at a distance so he could help if she got into trouble.

At least, that was the plan. Except he couldn't do anything when the bridge over the chasm leading to the Mako reactor broke while Tifa was on it, dropping her onto the rocks below. Cloud managed to climb down and make sure she hadn't broken anything, but she'd hit her head on something and wouldn't wake up. Then mayor Lockhart and some men from the village came looking for Tifa and when they saw what had happened they blamed Cloud for getting her hurt.

Tifa didn't wake up for a week, and by the time she did nobody in Nibelhein except his mother would so much as give Cloud the time of day. He'd been an outsider before; now he was a pariah.

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><p>About a week later the thumps and screams started up again in the ShinRa mansion just outside the village and Cloud decided that he was going to find the ghost and see why it only woke up every six months or so and why it was always so angry. His mother wouldn't miss him until dinner time and if the ghost killed him the only person who would be sad was Ma, and even then the villagers might be nicer to her if he wasn't around any more.<p>

So, feeling unhappy, confused and vaguely guilty for his part in Tifa's accident, Cloud Strife slipped through the half-open gate to the ShinRa mansion grounds and scampered up to the front door.

It was unlocked. Pausing on the threshold to listen for danger, the short, blue-eyed boy determined that the ghost was under the floor; probably in a cellar or basement. He couldn't hear anything else, suggesting that the ghost had scared off any animals or monsters lurking in the abandoned building. Encouraged by the lack of flying furniture the old man telling ghost stories had said was normal for angry ghosts, not to mention the bright morning sunlight streaming in through the dusty windowpanes, Cloud went looking for the cellar steps. The ghost was clearly limited to a very small part of the mansion, so he could just run away if he had to. Plus, none of the stories indicated that ghosts could go outside during the day.

The ringing sounds of someone hammering on metal got louder as he went further down past several store rooms and the loud roaring noise gradually became clear, coherent and very imaginative swearing. Cloud blushed scarlet as he paused outside the door the noise was coming from; the ghost was shouting for someone to let them out. As he listened to the thumps and shouts the eight-year-old started to wonder if there could be a real live person in there. Memories of accidentally locking himself in his mother's storage room aged seven sprang to mind: Cloud had almost screamed himself sick and not stopped hitting the door and crying until a good while after his Ma had heard the commotion and let him out.

The untidy-haired blond cleared his throat self-consciously as there was a pause in the hammering and the shouting stopped for a bit. "Hello?" he quavered nervously, still not quite sure if it really was a ghost or not.

"Someone there?" came back a muffled reply, followed by a quick double-thump on something hard and metallic.

"Yeah!" Cloud replied, encouraged by the relatively normal-sounding voice. "Are you stuck? I didn't know anybody lived in here!"

"I was locked in a while back," came the answer. "Care to let me out, whoever you are?"

"I'm Cloud!" Cloud said, trying the door. It didn't open. "It's locked. Sorry." The blond drooped. He was still useless and no-one would follow him if he asked them to come help him rescue someone after the Bridge Incident.

"Kid? Cloud? You still there?"

"Yes?"

"Good. The basement keys should be in the safe on the second floor, in the left wing. Combination should be right-36, left-10, right-59, right-97. Got that Cloud?"

"Keys in the safe upstairs on the left, right-30, left-10, right-59, right-97," Cloud parroted back, excitement bubbling in his stomach. He was rescuing someone all by himself! An _adult_ someone!

"Good. Come back even if they aren't there so we can plan something else;" the voice said. "You've no idea how long I've been waiting to be rescued."

Cloud bounded up the basement steps to the first floor, through the house to the main lobby then up the staircase and left into the second floor wing. The safe was easy to find -there were only three rooms- and the combination worked perfectly. Once he swung the heavy door open he grabbed the ring of keys off the second shelf and ran back of the room, eager to rescue the person locked in the cellar who wasn't treating him like something nasty on the bottom of their shoe.

Now that the person locked in the cellar wasn't banging and yelling loud enough to wake the dead the mansion was eerily silent and Cloud was uneasily reminded that the villagers said that monsters lived in here. Looking around nervously as he crossed the main floor, the short blond slipped back down the basement steps without meeting anything at all.

"I'm back and I found the keys!" he said brightly on reaching the door again, reaching up to try each key to see which one fit the lock.

"Good kid," came the reply. "Gaia alone knows how much I've missed stuck down here."

The fourth key Cloud tried turned out to be the right one and the eight-year-old pushed the door open carefully, peeking into the gloom inside.

The room beyond was lit by a single, dim electric light and full of coffins. There was nobody there. Had it been a ghost after all? "Hello?" he whispered again, doing his best not to squeak.

A thump to his right made him jump. "In here Cloud," said the voice. Now there wasn't a door in the way Cloud could tell the person was hoarse from all the shouting. The short blond hurried over to the coffin at the right-hand end of the room. Unlike the others in the room it had a locked metal harness of some kind holding it closed and the lid was badly dented from the inside.

"Er, I'll try some of the other keys," Cloud babbled nervously, privately outraged that someone had locked this poor person in a coffin. He remembered very well all his mother's lectures on how dangerous it was to lock people inside small spaces. "Can you breathe in there?"

There was a soft chuckle. "Yeah, kid, I can breathe just fine," came the unexpectedly warm reply. "You're a smart one, aren't you? I bashed up the lid so the air could get in but I can't reach the locks."

"Well, I'm not sure if any of these keys will- hey! This one works!" Cloud said jubilantly, turning the key in the lock. With a series of clicks the harness unlocked and fell apart on either side of the coffin. The eight-year-old barely had a moment to savour his success before the coffin lid was tossed across the room like so much paper and a black-clad, red-cloaked blur erupted from the coffin itself to perch on the nearest end. Cloud took a wary step back towards the door as red eyes under black hair pierced him like winter wind, making him wonder if perhaps he should have checked _why_ this guy was locked in a coffin before letting them out. After all, he _had_ been in there for a _very_ long time if the stories were anything to go by and normal people can't even survive a month without food, let alone several years. Hell, he'd probably been in there longer than Cloud had been alive!

"Are, are you a vampire?" he squeaked, eyes wide as he stared at the tall, pale stranger he'd just let out of a coffin.

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><p>Enter Cloud Strife, intrepid rescuer! I shifted Tifa's accident forward a few months for plot purposes; Cloud's inferiority complex has had hardly any time to settle in at this point and he hasn't become totally introverted just yet.<p> 


	7. Synchronisaton

**Synchronisation **

Having at long last escaped the cramped confines of the coffin Vincent stared down at her saviour whilst getting a feel for how much out of shape she now was. She had expected a teenager at the very least; that the child -was Cloud male or female?- could be no more than seven or eight years of age came as a surprise. Stranger still was the child's appearance: Brilliant blue eyes, short stature, slim build and a mop of hair as unruly as a chocobo's crest. Her little rescuer looked rather disconcertingly like someone had cast Mini on President Shinra back before the man started going bald.

Of course, the President of the company had used copious quantities of haircare products to tame his own unruly spikes, feeling that untidy, gravity-defying blond locks made him look less than professional, but there was no doubt in Vincent's mind that Cloud was a product of the philandering ways of the ex-Turk's former boss. Which led to the question of what a Shinra bastard was doing in Nibelhien, the proverbial middle-of-nowhere town.

His mother had probably run after realising she was pregnant, getting as far away as possible from Midgar, Vincent decided. Probably under a false name as well, but she would have to check that out later. Hojo had picked Nibelhein for his laboratory because there really was nothing here except the old Mako reactor and it was possibly the smallest and most insular village on the face of the planet.

Then the child's tremulous inquiry registered, making Vincent's lips twitch in amusement.

"No, I am not a vampire. What is today's date and what year is it?"

Cloud relaxed a little, possibly reassured by the fact that the former Turk hadn't tried to jump him, but kept his distance. "It's the twenty-second of April, 1995. Are you _sure_ you aren't a vampire?"

Vincent had been trapped in that blasted coffin for seventeen and a half _years_. It certainly hadn't felt anywhere near that long, which suggested that her periods of sleep were far, far longer than any normal human's. She'd thought it was two months at the most; Catching up with everything she'd missed would take much longer than she'd initially believed.

She almost flinched at the pain that twisted in her chest when it registered that she'd missed Sephiroth's entire childhood. Vincent sincerely hoped that her precious son was still alive and reasonably healthy and that he could forgive her for not being there for him.

But in order to get to Sephiroth she had to stick to the plan. First, ransack the mansion for information and supplies; Second, catch up with the past seventeen years' worth of happenings and technology; Third, find Sephiroth. Since it would be best to stay under the radar for the moment, Cloud could help her with some of that. Which reminded her...

"Positive; I have a heartbeat," she told Cloud dryly, whom she decided was definitely a little boy. He hadn't minded the long pause between question and answer in the slightest; rather unusual for a child of his apparent age.

"Oh. That's okay then," the spiky-haired boy said, looking up at her inquisitively. "You're really tall. I've never seen clothes like your before. Who put you in the coffin?"

"The crazy scientist who abducted my son," Vincent said flatly, quashing the wave of bitter ire that threatened to wake her inner monsters and striding towards the door in a swirl of tattered red. Her clothing blatantly marked her as the avatar of Chaos, but at least it was comfortable, easy to move in and wouldn't get damaged if her inner monsters emerged. That pockets could be added or hidden on a whim of the WEAPON was an additional bonus.

"How long ago?" Cloud asked timidly, trotting to keep up with her much longer legs.

"Seventeen years," she said shortly, trying not to dwell on what she'd lost. A distressed sound behind her made her pause in the corridor and turn around. Cloud looked absolutely horrified, face pasty and eyes wide.

"All, all of the banging and screaming was always you? There isn't really a ghost at all? I could have come and rescued you _years_ ago and you'd have found your son again by now!"

Vincent refrained from sighing or rolling her eyes at this ridiculous pronouncement; Cloud clearly had a budding guilt complex that needed to eradicated before people started to take advantage of it. "You had no idea that I was in here, correct?"

"No, but-"

"Nor were you the one to lock me in," the former Turk interrupted smoothly.

"No, but-"

"And you are not yet of age, am I right?"

"I'm nearly nine," the chocobo-haired boy admitted. Older than Vincent had thought, but President Shinra _was_ rather short.

"So, as you were not responsible for my imprisonment, were unaware that I was even in here and are still a child, you are in no way to blame for what happened," Vincent said firmly, her now-luminous red eyes meeting Cloud's sky-blue orbs. "People are _only_ responsible for their _own_ choices and decisions, _not_ those made by other people. Remember that."

This fairly obvious statement seemed to come as a revelation to Cloud. "Really?" he whispered. "But everyone blames me..."

"Blames you for what?" Vincent pushed. This needed fixing or the boy would forever be burdening himself with unnecessary guilt.

Could dropped his gaze to the floor and shuffled his feet. "Tifa Lockhart's mother died last month and she ran off into the mountains a few days later to look for her, since everyone just said Mrs Lockhart had gone away. I followed but she fell when the bridge broke and everyone says it was my fault she got hurt."

"They are lying;" Vincent said briskly, relieved the problem was this simple. "If anything it is her father who is at fault for not explaining the truth to her properly or keeping a closer eye on her. Blaming you is completely irrational on their part."

"What's irash, irrational?"

"Irrational means unreasonable, not logical and not sensible."

"So everyone blaming me for Tifa getting hurt is just them being dumb?"

"In essence." As Vincent reached the top of the basement steps she was rushed by a Dorky Face. The former Turk lashed out with her metal-clawed left hand, shredding the monster in one easy movement. Cloud squeaked in awe as the body disintegrated, leaving behind a piece of Phoenix Down that Vincent pocketed.

"That was so cool! Could you teach me to fight like that?" the boy babbled.

Vincent turned around fully to really look at the young Shinra bastard. The blond was both short and scrawny but he certainly had courage and drive. Considering his parentage he was unlikely to get very tall, but height wasn't everything. He looked nimble and quick, both of which were good qualities for a Turk to have. On the minus side Cloud was heedless to danger -he'd just walked into the mansion without considering there would be monsters in an abandoned building- far too trusting and completely immature. However, given time and dedication, those faults could be fixed.

"Will you work hard and follow orders without hesitation?" Vincent did not say 'without asking questions'; an inquiring mind was necessary to becoming a good Turk and should be encouraged and nurtured.

"Yes sir!" Again, Vincent had been mistaken for a man. Not that it was that much of a problem; in fact, in such a backwards village as Nibelhein, it would be an advantage.

"Will you not reveal anything about me or your training to _anyone_ without my express permission?" Secrecy was paramount at this point if her plan was to be successful.

"I won't say anything, I promise!" Cloud looked incredibly eager and very, very young. He also hadn't thought the promise through, which really showed how young and sheltered he was. Not that Vincent would take advantage, but someone else might have.

"Then yes, I'll teach you. Not just how to fight, but all the kinds of things you need to know to survive out in the world."

The smile Cloud gifted her with was absolutely radiant, an abrupt reminder of how charming Mr Shinra had been before his ever-increasing wealth and power made him arrogant and overbearing.

* * *

><p>A chocobo is a bird that looks like a cross between an ostrich and a chicken, used for riding. A Dorky Face is a weak monster that looks like a hovering jack o' lantern.<p>

Cloud's guilt complex is not something my version of Vincent is prepared to tolerate; no Turk would be that easy to manipulate.


	8. Sensitivity

**Sensitivity**

It took Vincent until midwinter to go through all of the computer files and written notes lying around the Shinra mansion. Lucretia's notes and thesis were dealt with early on since they were both the tidiest and the most critical, but working out what Hojo had done and gathering all he had written from hidden shelves and secret drawers took months. The former Turk copied all the important documentation about 'Specimen V' and 'Specimen S' onto two hard drives and packed up the handwritten notes into a separate folder.

Vincent also found some of professor Gast's notes on the Cetra and JENOVA in one of the hidden cubbyholes. Those notes had been stashed there more recently, either by Gast himself or by a dangerously well-informed thief. Vincent suspected the latter: the notes gave her a rather alarming insight into what JENOVA really was and what Hojo had done to her son.

JENOVA was an extraterrestrial virus that boosted the strength, senses and reaction times of the subject. More disturbingly it caused physical mutations -slit pupils, feathered wings, tentacles and scales among other things- and was more likely to drive the victim insane in the long run than offer any genuine advantage. Worse, Hojo's notes indicated that the virus was sentient: the mutated J-cells were aware of each-other and could communicate, largely through a kind of empathetic projection but actual mental contact was possible if the cell concentration was high enough within the host. The deranged professor's handwritten notes raved about JENOVA talking to him in his mind and how he would be elevated above all others for bringing her to greatness.

All of the lunatic's plans involves Sephiroth in one way or another, which caused Vincent to amend her plan -third, locate Sephiroth; fourth, destroy JENOVA as soon as possible- and more determined than ever to find and protect her son. Her new physical condition meant she would likely be incapable of conceiving a child of her own, which only made Sephiroth more precious.

* * *

><p>What was currently bothering Vincent was the unfortunate reality that her plan would need to be altered to include Cloud. His mother's name turned out to be Strife, which was surprisingly apt: the boy had a knack for destroying things. So far all the former Turk had taught him was basic hand-to-hand, although she had also introduced the short blond to the concept of planning ahead, strategy games and other little logistical exercises. Most of what she made Cloud do was build his strength, endurance, flexibility and speed, which meant running laps, doing situps, pushups and other stretches and a version of tag where Vincent threw things that Cloud had to dodge while remaining inside a circle.<p>

The circle gradually got smaller as the boy improved.

Cloud was also working on his stealth, mainly through trial and error: Vincent had promised to start weapons training early if the energetic boy could sneak up on her even once. The nine-year-old was yet to succeed but he was nothing if not persistent and he was getting better every day. That sheer single-mindedness was both an admirable quality and a dangerous defect, as well as the reason behind Vincent including the blond in her increasingly detailed plans; whether or not he was physically ready Cloud would not allow himself to be left behind. The boy had got his hands on some of Hojo's notes a few months back and decided then and there that the professor had to be stopped. Vincent would have believed it just a childish phase had Cloud's work ethic not doubled in intensity overnight and consistently improved ever since.

Regardless of whether the boy's stealth was up to par the former Turk intended to begin weapons' training within the month; Cloud was ready.

* * *

><p>In the past six months Vincent had also explored and pushed her own limits, exploring the Nibel mountains and killing monsters both as practice and for supplies. She had also experienced the emergence of all three of her inner abominations and witnessed what kind of damage they left behind, as well as Chaos' own battle strategy. The latter occurred when she accidentally stumbled across a dragon.<p>

The Galian Beast was the easiest to deal with and accept since it acted very much like the local Nibel wolves: it was an apex predator with a taste for raw meat that killed anything that attacked it or that it felt threatened by. In addition to its immense physical strength it could throw fireballs, or at least Vincent thought they were fireballs. Its habit of dining on defeated monsters made the former Turk seriously consider turning vegetarian before deciding that letting something Hojo had done to her limit her own choices would just be letting him win ans she refused to do that. Besides, the Galian Beast was less hungry when she ate properly, which was one reason not to give up meat. Although she did make sure _her_ meat was properly cooked.

Death Gigas was the most humiliating manifestation. For one it was male, for another it was utterly, irredeemably stupid. If something living was in front of it, Death Gigas attacked it. It only ever went forwards, not even noticing the things on either side unless they attacked it. When that happened it turned to face the attacker and only paid attention to that new direction, moving in a straight line until the danger was over and Vincent returned to herself.

Hellmasker was the most terrifying manifestation. Even Chaos disliked him, which was saying something. There was something profoundly _wrong_ with Hellmasker that made Vincent very nervous about herself and the human race in general: some things should not be allowed out of the mental closet at all _ever_ and Hellmasker was one of those things. He revelled in torture and bloodshed, lived for the pain and suffering of others and was consistent in his insistence that agonising death was the most beautiful thing ever created. Hellmasker had neither allies nor enemies, only potential victims. After _that_ incident Vincent hunted down Cloud, described the manifestation and ordered the boy to hide well out of sight if he ever saw it emerging and keep any bystanders out of the monster's sight as well.

Chaos was different from the others as well as more powerful, mainly because it had once been an independent being. When Chaos was in control Vincent felt like the being was wearing her like a flesh suit, which was a whole new kind of uncomfortable. Chaos was also utterly unpredictable and rarely did the same thing twice. Certainly never twice in a row. The only advantage to dealing with the WEAPON that was the herald of OMEGA was that Vincent could suppress it more easily that the others. She could also call it up more easily, but she only did that when Chaos was preferable to the alternative. As the other three came to the fore depending on how badly she was wounded, it was good to have an alternative she could call upon at will.

Well, almost at will; Chaos had a will of its own and sometimes fought tooth and nail for control, though Vincent won nineteen times out of twenty the first time around and all of the rematches.

Having learnt all she could within the mansion and all she needed about her own inner monsters Vincent set about preparing herself for the spring, when she could turn her attention to the rest of the world and find out what ShinRa had been up to in her absence.

* * *

><p>A brief interlude before the action really gets moving and an introduction to Vincent's inner beasties. Oh, and more Cloud in the background. Please review your favourite chapters!<p> 


	9. Divergence

**Divergence**

It took the better part of a year for Vincent to catch up on eighteen years' worth of world events, most of which covered the rise to global prominence of the ShinRa Power Company. The former Turk spent days at a time trawling through old news footage on the Global Information Network, reading ageing newspaper articles and hacking into the Turk Mission Database through one of the many backdoors she'd installed when she'd had to set the damned thing up twenty years ago. That had technically been punishment duty, but as a result of her overzealous efficiency the entire infonet was riddled with keyed entry points she could open with ease.

The standardised program files she'd written to make information distribution more efficient had been leaked to the public as the standard template that was now used by pretty much everyone using the 'net for the past two decades, meaning the entire system -no matter how encrypted or password protected- was accessible though the 'ventilation ducts' she'd embedded in the program structure, which in turn enabled her to eventually get her hands on absolutely everything in any computer attached to the infonet, especially those on the old ShinRa central network. Some of the more obvious surface access pathways were already being exploited -probably by other enterprising Turks- but the deeper corridors were pristine, unused since the last time she'd travelled them.

Vincent found Sephiroth barely four months into her information hunt: he was currently in Wutai, a first-class SOLDIER fighting in the war that had been dragging on for almost five years already. Reading between the lines of the reports sent back to headquarters regarding her son's behaviour made Vincent want to cry and prompted numerous trips up into the mountains to kill things; her son had clearly never had a childhood, never been allowed to express himself honestly and been forced to hide inside an icy fortress of perfection that he was now unable to escape. Notes about his inability to act as part of a team, interact emotionally with his comrades and utter lack of distinction between civilians and enemy forces made it quite clear that her baby boy hadn't a clue about people and trusted no-one.

The first thing she was doing after she found him was taking him on a camping holiday out in the middle of nowhere. Sephiroth was under far too much pressure and had been since, well, forever. He'd been in the field since he was _fourteen_, for Gaia's sake!

The rest of the year was divided between obtaining more information on Hojo, ShinRa -the mentions of a 'Deepground' made her Turk senses itch- the SOLDIER project and laying the groundwork for her departure onto the world stage to rescue her son. Teaching Cloud was fitted in between all of this, though the boy was a very quick study now his body was strong and fast enough to keep up with the lessons.

Vincent also fitted in a visit to Cloud's mother, as her plans involved taking the illegitimate Shinra along with her when she left Nibelhein; the former Turk did _not_ want to leave without him and then have the stubborn child turn up six months later on his own.

* * *

><p>The short, spiky-haired blond proved to have a natural instinct for swords, the bigger the better; Vincent however was not a swordswoman. The closest she got to using swords were her paired long knives, thirteen and fifteen inches respectively, which <em>could<em> be considered short swords if you wanted to get technical. Despite being officially a sharp-shooter, Vincent's real specialty was knives, garottes and other assassins tools; shooting was a result of nurture and years of hunting with her father.

As Cloud seemed to be one of those rare people to have a knack for large blades in spite of his diminutive stature. Vincent therefore taught him how to use her long knives; proportionally to his size they were practically swords anyway. She also taught him various other kinds of knife-fighting -one and two-handed- which she was very good at, as well as how to handle different types of knife at the same time and switch between them smoothly according to the situation. It did not take Cloud very long to pick up on the differences between fighting with and against matched and mismatched blades, how to dodge, lunge and shift between blades according to the needs of the moment and -most importantly- how to hide your arsenal on your person. He had a gift for it. As a reward for his diligence Vincent gifted her student with six of her own knives: the matched switchblades, six inches each; the pair of thirteen-inch knives that were practically swords in his small hands; the thicker ten-inch blade that looked more like a meat cleaver than a proper knife; and lastly the slender four-inch stiletto that was for stabbing rather than slashing.

Vincent also ensured Cloud was aware of his surroundings by ambushing the boy regularly enough for the ten-year-old to develop a sixth sense for threats targeting his person, trained him in stealth until the boy could slip past a Nibel wolf undetected and beat tactics, logistics and strategy into his head until they were almost second nature. She also taught her blond protégé to shoot, which he no instinct or talent for but managed anyway, how to hack -which Cloud was steadily getting better at- and how to gather information, which was entirely theoretical since they lived in a tiny village where everyone knew everyone else. Disguises were also covered, as were breaking and entering, pick-pocketing, poisons, traps and other nasty little tricks. The only really legal lessons were the ones on wilderness survival and monster identification.

But in order to really give Cloud practice in the areas he needed to hone the boy needed to leave Nibelhein. Which was why Vincent eventually found and spoke to his mother on the subject.

* * *

><p>Vincent chose to call in at Cloud's house a few hours before the boy came out of school, introducing herself to 'Mrs Strife' -which was indeed a false name- as a mercenary and monster hunter looking for a helper. The former Turk told her student's mother that Cloud had met her outside the village and asked for lessons on combat and wilderness survival, showing a remarkable knack for both. Cloud had recently told his mother that he wanted to join SOLDIER, so it was to be expected that he would try to get some training and experience.<p>

The red-eyed avatar told Cloud's mother that she wanted to accept Cloud as an apprentice and take him across the continents with her for at least four years, giving the boy the option of joining SOLDIER if he still wanted to or prolonging the apprenticeship if he did not. Apprenticeships were common in villages and towns where a craftsman chose their successor through competence rather than bloodline, but very rare indeed in Nibelhien. Cloud was unlikely to ever come home even if he didn't join ShinRa.

Mrs Strife was hesitant, but when Cloud got home and found out what Vincent was suggesting he begged and pleaded shamelessly until his mother gave in and agreed. The blond boy was ecstatic, bouncing and whooping happily at the prospect of leaving the village a whole four years earlier than he had hoped for.

That decided and Cloud's mother lavishly repaid for the 'loss' of her son, Vincent Valentine packed all of her weapons, equipment, supplies, Materia and information scavenged from the mansion and her monster hunting expeditions and hid it in her student's attic. Then the former Turk set about orchestrating her 'escape': she did not want Hojo to suspect that she'd had any help getting out of the coffin and needed to hide how much she'd removed from the building. The locking bands were refastened around the coffin and snapped, a hole was melted through the basement door and then, late one spring night after the roads were finally cleared of snow, Vincent let Chaos go on a loud and highly destructive rampage through the laboratories and the manor itself, making a special effort to completely obliterate the computer storage area and the library as well as the expensive Mako tanks. The Rampage culminated with the being setting the building on fire before blasting through the roof, leaving the mansion to partly collapse in on itself as it burned.

Loose ends all suitably tied up, ten days after the mansion's destruction Vincent left Nibelhein with her new apprentice Cloud at her side, headed over the pass towards Rocket town. Sephiroth was a SOLDIER in Wutai, so she and Cloud would have to go to there rather than to Midgar. Her student would have plenty of time to practice his skills along the way.

* * *

><p>And Vincent leaves Nibelhein with Cloud. What do people think of our Chocobo-head's choice in weaponry?<p> 


	10. First Iteration

**First Iteration**

Cloud Strife knew very well that he didn't look like much; he was short for his age and skinny with big blue eyes in a slender, delicate face topped by a shock of golden hair like a Chocobo's crest. But he was more than just a pretty country boy with dreams bigger than his body could handle: He was almost fourteen years old, had been wandering the planet with his mentor for the past three years and knew more about weapons, Materia, death, survival and ShinRa than most people three times his age.

The young teen sat patiently on the high cliffs above the city of Midgar, going through his possessions as his and Vincent's Chocobos grazed and warked quietly behind him. Since leaving Nibelhein his life had been a mess of ups and downs, exciting adventures and hard lessons but he refused to regret a single minute of it. As his hands automatically went about their work Cloud let his mind drift, remembering the whens and wheres of his most valuable tools and treasures.

This red orb was the Odin summon Vincent had given him in the truck on the way to Rocket town, less than a day after they left Nibelhein. Cloud had been miserably drowsy from the motion sickness medication Vincent insisted he take, but that brief conversation had stuck in his mind.

"For emergencies," the red-eyed former Turk had said quietly, tucking the Materia into a pouch on Cloud's belt. "Everyone needs an ace up their sleeve."

Cloud had only used Odin a few times, but by Gaia he'd needed it then.

This purple one was Chocobo Lure he had pickpocketed from a traveller in Rocket Town six weeks into their stay there. It had been new and barely used then and as a reward for his successful theft Vincent had taken him out into the wilderness to find a Chocobo. They had eventually found two good birds and Cloud had spent the next three days learning how to care for, ride and breed Chocobos while Vincent told him stories about Grimoire Valentine's Chocobo racing stable. It was one of the few times the blond had ever heard his stoic mentor ramble about the past so he had engraved the entire conversation in his memory and treasured every single word. The purple Materia was mastered now and the original Chocobos were the grandparents of their current black-feathered mounts.

This pair of green spheres were his Heal and Restore Materia, both only recently mastered. They were the ones Vincent had got for him and used to teach Cloud how to cast spells. He'd had them longer than any of his Materia other than Odin. He didn't use them all that much, which said a lot about how protective Vincent was of him and how awesome the former Turk was as a teacher.

This yellow Materia was the Sense he'd bought in Junon while Vincent was hacking into the Turk database again and was part of the reason the blond didn't need to use Heal or Restore very often. He had mastered it _ages_ ago, since he kept it equipped almost constantly in one weapon or another.

Loose Materia sorted, Cloud took off his Dragon Armlet -which had been a trophy from a _massive_ red dragon Vincent had gone Chaos on- and got on with checking and cleaning the three pairs of linked Materia in their slots. Three blue support Materia, two paired with green and one with yellow. Counter linked with Steal to prevent enemies from making off with his stuff, Added Effect linked with Seal to protect from Sleep and Silence spells and a second Added Effect linked to a Time Materia. Those last two pairs protected him from most status-affecting attacks and the Dragon Armlet itself halved fire, lightening and ice damage so Cloud was very well-protected.

Armour dealt with, Cloud moved onto his weapons.

First his switchblades and stiletto, each with a single Materia slot. The stiletto held a Poison that was more for distraction than actually killing people, another Materia he'd pickpocketed rather than bought, found or been given. The switchblades held Fire and Ice respectively, both bought in Costa del Sol last year when a very odd Turk with strawberry blond hair and sunglasses took him shopping and spent most of three hours explaining in detail how to make bombs from household items and scavenged bits and pieces. He had mentioned in passing that he was in Costa del Sol under house arrest for failing an important mission, but that the beach wasn't all that bad considering. At the end of their afternoon together the man had ruffled Cloud's hair, slipped him a level two Earth Materia and told him to 'Shake the world, kid'. Cloud had learned later that Vincent had set up a series of distractions so the disgraced Turk could get away from his watchers for a few hours. That the odd man had used the time to take Cloud shopping, chat about explosives, politics and Chocobo racing was just one of life's mysteries.

The Earth Materia was equipped in his cleaver-like knife, linked to a Sneak Attack he'd won racing Chocobos in Gold Saucer when he was twelve. Being small for his age was a real advantage for a Chocobo jockey; he'd been invited to come back anytime and race professionally by several different people.

His next weapon was the beautiful Yoshiyuki katana he'd got in Rocket town on his last visit, far too big for him yet still ineffably perfect in his hands. While they were in Gonaga six months ago Vincent had somehow persuaded a quiet, bespectacled Turk to teach Cloud the basics of how to wield a sword for eight weeks before the man vanished again. All the blond had as a memento of that encounter was three dozen kata to practice, the Turk's name -Seto- and a promise that the serious, lightning-quick fighter would be dropping in again sometime to gauge his progress.

Yoshiyuki had two separate Materia slots and was equipped with a Lightning and a Counter Attack, both fairly old, mastered and much loved. The Counter Attack had been a reward for successfully breaking into the ShinRa security centre last time they were in Midgar and fiddling the security cameras so Vincent could get in and out of the Science Department to steal a bunch of data without leaving any evidence behind. Cloud hadn't _needed_ to succeed, but it had made Vincent's part a whole lot easier. That his infiltration had gone off without a hitch had won him an independent Materia and a quiet 'Well done' that had made his heart swell with delight; Vincent was not generous with praise.

His favourite blades, the pair of thirteen-inch knives, he saved until last. Each had a set of paired Materia equipped and the option for a single and he had run most of his Materia through them at least once. Vincent insisted that versatility was important so Cloud had tried all sorts of combinations on them. Currently one blade held All and Contain while the other had Gravity and Elemental. The empty slots would be equipped with his loose Odin and Sense if it ever came to a fight.

Blades cleaned and hidden on his person, Cloud pulled his only gun out of its holster and set about the tedious process of taking it apart, cleaning every single piece and slotting it back together again. He had no talent for guns but Vincent had made sure the blond could take the recoil and hit what he shot at; not inspired by any means, but capable. The former Turk had given him a Peacemaker, which Cloud had equipped with a Destruct linked to an Added Effect -he had three of that useful little blue orb- and a Reflect just for the hell of it.

Cloud only had one more Materia, an Enemy Away that was almost as heavily used as his Sense and was knotted into a pendant around his neck.

Weapons cleaned, ordered and properly put away, Cloud lay back to stare at the early morning sky as he was lulled into a doze by the rustling of leaves and occasional Chocobo wark.

* * *

><p>Cloud, aged thirteen and eight months. This is a sort-of interlude just to give an idea of what he and Vincent have been up to.<p> 


	11. Second Iteration

**Second Iteration**

Cloud had only very recently learned that his red-eyed mentor was not, in fact, male. He could not even claim the credit for discovering Vincent's gender himself; the blond would still have been in the dark had Chaos not outright told him that the former Turk was a woman.

"_Vincent forgets,"_ The quasi-summon had said, eyes glowing a uniform and brilliant gold, _"that actual gender is relevant to most people. She was born female but her father raised her to be a man so she naturally acts the part. The deception is neither deliberate nor personal, little chocobo, so do not dwell on it. This is how she is and she knows no other way; such a contradictory vessel."_

Getting his head around the truth that Vincent Valentine, former Turk, mentor and friend was actually female made his brain ache for a few days but Cloud adapted. It also explained the ex-Turk's near obsession with Sephiroth: the blond knew his own mother would have been similarly determined to get him back if he had ever been abducted, if less well-equipped for eventualities than Vincent was.

Part of the puzzle that was obscuring Vincent's gender were the red-eyed avatar's metamorphoses. Chaos was weird, overpowered and sort-of bearable despite his habit of talking in riddles and the fact he liked to tease. The herald of OMEGA never raised a hand to Cloud, preferring to treat the blond boy like a younger brother: Cloud was someone to prod, torment and bedevil but never outright harm. The blue-eyed teen found the being utterly infuriating most of the time, yet the strange creature had told him a great many interesting and occasionally useful things over the years.

Death Gigas on the the hand was just dumb; thicker than a meter of concrete. When it emerged Cloud just had to stay behind it and watch the Gigas-like monstrosity with its metal attachments plough through the enemy with fists and occasional electrical bursts. It was like a chronically stupid Frankenstein's monster and impossible to interact with.

The Galian beast on the other hand Cloud had seen much more of. It looked like a bipedal Behemoth without the spikes on the tail and had clearly defined pack instincts, so whenever it emerged Cloud just made sure not to threaten it while it made mincemeat of today's enemies. After the fight Cloud would put his weapons away while it watched, then the Galian Beast would treat him the same way the boy had seen Nibel wolves treating their cubs. Getting carted off to a cave or forest clearing like an errant kitten was humiliating but oddly reassuring at the same time, as it told him that Vincent -on some level- considered him family.

That in itself should have told Cloud that Vincent was female -Galian Beast certainly had all the appropriate maternal instincts for its species- but he'd never considered the possibility at all. The former Turk just acted like a guy.

The last manifestation, Hellmasker, was just terrifying. Whenever it started to emerge Cloud would grab the chocobos and flee the fight, not stopping until he was well out of sight. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the screams to stop and fret about what happened until Vincent tracked him down so they could move on.

That had only happened twice, but twice was two times too many. Chaos was unpredictability incarnate but even he was better than Hellmasker.

* * *

><p>Cloud eventually tired of just lounging around and walked over to the edge of the cliff so he could look down over Midgar's upper plate, the ShinRa building sticking up in the middle like the axle of a wheel. In the past three years he'd been absolutely everywhere on the planet including Wutai -Vincent had briefly encountered Sephiroth but the older teen had been called back to Midgar for his promotion soon after- Mideel and even as far north as Icicle inn. They'd caught a wonderful chocobo during that particular trip and Cloud's black chocobo Dash was now the proud father of a cute little golden chocobo chick that was safe and happy back at the Chocobo Farm with its mother. Choco Billy positively worshipped the cute gold ball of fluff and had agreed to enter it in the Golden Saucer chocobo races on their behalf, for a modest fee of course. His sister Chole would be riding little Sunshine as soon as he was old enough since she was small and light enough to be a good jockey and the woman was looking forward to it. An all-expenses-paid trip to Golden Saucer was nothing to sniff at.<p>

Other than keeping an eye on Sunshine as he grew up, Cloud had nothing specific he wanted to do in the next five months until the autumn SOLDIER recruitment when he intended to become a cadet. He knew he could make the cut in the exams the year after: he was very fit for his age, well-educated in tactics and strategy and very, very good with Materia. His only problem would be avoiding conscription into the Turks. He had all the skills Turks looked for in new recruits and more -he was a quick study and Vincent had been a fantastic Turk- but Cloud _needed_ to get into SOLDIER. Not for the mako, the glory or anything like on the propaganda posters; he was doing this for Vincent and Sephiroth.

In the past years, both in Nibelhein and on the road, Cluod had learnt a lot about Sephiroth. First by reading the lab notes on the horrific suffering a young 'Specimen S' had been put through, then from the reports hacked from the ShinRa database on the performance of SOLDIER first-class Sephiroth. The chilly teen Cloud had seen between the lines was totally isolated, idolised by his juniors, envied by his peers and expected to be perfect by his superiors. He had no real friends, no-one he could rely on to just be there for him. Cloud knew how awful that was -he'd been alone until he found Vincent- and wanted to help.

Besides, perfection was impossible to attain: Vincent had taught him that early on and the lesson was an important one. Cloud knew it was a lesson Sephiroth needed to take to heart before the man snapped.

Cloud's driving ambition was to become Sephiroth's friend and share with him all the fun things in life that the Silver General had missed, from chocobo riding to watching butterflies and toasting marshmallows over a fire. Vincent was Sephiroth's mother as well as Cloud's mentor and father-figure -which sounded _really_ strange even though it was the truth- so Cloud intended to become a little brother to the man feared as 'the Demon of Wutai'. It was a fairly ridiculous ambition, one that all but required he get into SOLDIER since that was Sephiroth's peer group. Once inside SOLDIER Cloud would have the chance to interact with Sephiroth more often and -hopefully- make friends. Even if Sephiroth never trusted Cloud enough to be friendly, the blond had decided that _he_ would be the General's friend no matter what.

The blond had read the science reports: Sephiroth was two-thirds Vincent, one-third Lucretia Crescent, had Grimoire Valentine's Y-chromosome -they'd only discovered recently that Hojo hadn't used his own- and had been raised in a science lab. The silver-haired SOLDIER was much, much more closed off than Vincent and likely had severe trust issues, but reading between the lines Cloud saw a caring person with a dry sense on humour peeking through the icy façade.

Cloud liked a challenge; Vincent said it was part of what made him unsuitable for the Turks, along with his emotional honesty and inability to tell an outright lie, though he could misdirect with the best of them. Making friends with the icy, paranoid Hero of Wutai was exactly the kind of challenge Cloud liked: massive personal risks, not too much outright physical danger and a life-changing prize to be won at the end. Besides, being friends with Sephiroth meant he'd never lack for future challenges as well as gain him a comrade for life; trouble followed the General around like a devoted puppy, mainly in the form of the Science Department and Hojo.

Cloud sighed, flicking open his PHS. Vincent _still_ hadn't called. The blond really hoped his mentor's meeting with her son was going okay. Considering it had taken the better part of five years for her to finally admit to him that she was his mother, the possibilities for things going wrong were, well, pretty much endless. Especially when all the science stuff and the JENOVA mess was taken into account.

Not to mention Deepground and AVALANCHE.

* * *

><p>An iteration is a mathematical trick where, when f(x)=y, you take y and substitute for x to get a new answer then repeat. Supercomputers can plot out millions of iterations to create very pretty designs on charts that look like ferns and other natural patterns.<p>

What does Cloud want? Now you know. No hero worship this time around, thank Gaia.


	12. Turbulence

**Turbulence**

Vincent Valentine crouched silently on the roof of the glass elevator of the ShinRa building, waiting patiently for it to reach the forty-ninth floor. The person inside the elevator was second-class SOLDIER Zackary Fair, protégé to General Angeal Hewley, who was one of the results of Professor Hollander's 'Project G' alongside his colleague General Rhapsodos. Vincent had been shadowing the cheerfully charismatic second-class SOLDIER for a while now and she could see that the boy had promise, though he needed to calm down a bit. The second-classes exuberance actually worked in her favour on this little jaunt: Fair drew the eyes of everyone around him, letting Vincent slip past unnoticed.

Dropping down into the lift and exiting unseen in the wake of the SOLDIER, Vincent looked nothing like her usual self. Careful negotiation with Chaos had persuaded the WEAPON to reabsorb most of her usual garb, so the former Turk was without her black clothing and red cape. Her usually shiny metallic shoes were matte black and round-toed -pretending to be leather rather than metal- and her gold gauntlet was more streamlined so it could be covered by a sleeve. Instead Vincent wore the smart blue suit and crisp white shirt of her former profession, metal-clawed hand tucked out of sight and long black hair hanging loose to obscure her features. Having people notice that there was a brunette body-double of the Silver General wandering around the building would not be in the slightest bit discreet. Walking calmly in Fair's wake, no-one noticed her enter the stairwell.

Quickly reaching the fiftieth floor, the floor the three General's had their private offices on, Vincent walked quietly over to the door with her son's name on it and knocked politely before letting herself inside.

* * *

><p>The silver-haired General looked up from his paperwork as she closed the door behind her and frowned. "Valentine?"<p>

Vincent had briefly met Sephiroth in Wutai and told him she was a Turk called Valentine investigating matters internal to ShinRa for the President. She quickly walked up to his desk and deposited the jammer on top of the papers. "The video feed to this floor blew out half an hour ago," she said quietly, "it is unlikely to be noticed until tomorrow, but even if not it will take them at least three hours to locate and fix the fault."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the veiled assurance that their conversation would remain completely private, but he nodded at her to continue.

"When we spoke in Wutai I told you I had information regarding your true parentage and background, proof that Hojo was lying to you and sought to use you for his own ends," Vincent went on, quashing her nerves ruthlessly, "I have all the relevant evidence with me now and more elsewhere. I apologise for not getting in touch with you sooner but I wasn't sure you'd believe me without all the proof to hand." She reached slowly into the inner breast pocket of her Turk jacket with her right hand and pulled out four data disks.

"This one is me," she said flatly, placing the disk labelled 'V' in front of her son, "and this one is you." A disk labelled 'S' joined the 'V' disk. "These two are your colleagues Hewley and Rhapsodos," she tapped the disk labelled 'G', "and this last one is the project that started it all." That final disk was labelled 'J'. "You need to read the first two before considering these two, and I will answer all the questions I am able." She stepped back, putting the two data disks still in her hands back in her jacket and retreated to the far wall, never breaking eye contact.

Sephiroth fingered the disk with the V on it. "You are not really a Turk," he stated coolly.

"Not since Hojo got to me," Vincent admitted quietly, "Which was twenty-two years ago now. His tampering is fairly obvious if you know what to look for."

Sephiroth tensed slightly at the timing she was suggesting and stared hard at her youthful features. Vincent knew she barely looked twenty-five, yet she'd just told him she was over twice his age. The General however did not comment, instead placing the disk in his computer and started reading. Ten minutes in he looked up at Vincent incredulously.

"Your name is _Vincent_ yet you are a woman?"

Vincent's lips twitched. "Most definitely. I can always strip if you wish to check."

Sephiroth's eyebrow rose at the offer but he did not comment, going back to his reading. It took him the better part of an hour to skim through the disk's contents and by the end the General's face was icy with suppressed fury.

"What was done to me was done for reasons beyond simple experimentation," Vincent said softly, "and the reasons are all in the next disk. Hojo did not go to such length to put me out of circulation on a mere whim."

Sephiroth jerkily ejected the V disk and inserted the S disk, then froze with his eyes fixed on the screen. Vincent knew the first file on this disk was labelled 'Parentage and genetic history of Specimen S' and the former Turk made a deliberate effort to breathe evenly.

Three minutes later the Silver General stared up at her from his chair, perfect façade cracked open like an eggshell. _"Mother?"_ he rasped, eyes alight with painful hope.

Vincent didn't even think, she was across the room in an instant, knocking paperwork everywhere as she pulled her son close and hugged her baby boy as tightly as she could. "My beautiful son, my Sephiroth," she murmured into his hair, "did you know I named you? You weren't even born then, but I learnt you were mine and I went to kill Hojo so the experiments would stop. Anger made me careless and he almost killed me, but I named you then. My precious Sephiroth." she clutched him so tightly she heard his ribs creak. Sephiroth hugged her back, gripping her waist and shoulders with the desperation of a drowning man.

As she heard the chocked breathing in her ear Vincent removed her left hand from around his waist to cradle his head, caressing his scalp with metal-clawed fingers and crooning a half-forgotten lullaby she vaguely recalled from her own childhood. Sephiroth leaned his face against hers and she gently kissed what skin she could reach, rocking back and forth in time with her humming. She'd just shaken his world and her wonderful son needed time to put himself back together again.

* * *

><p>The door slammed open and Sephiroth cringed. Vincent adjusted her grip on his head so he couldn't pull away and pointed Cerberus at the intruder without turning around.<p>

"General Sephiroth! Angeal-" Zack Fair ground to a halt as he noticed what he'd walked in on and the three-barrelled handgun pointed directly between his eyes. "Er, uh,"

"You can walk out right now and close the door behind you or you can leave in a body bag," Vincent said flatly, voice as cold and biting as a Nibelhein blizzard. "You have two seconds before I decide for you."

The second-class fled, door swinging shut behind him. Vincent reholstered her gun and went back to comforting her son as if nothing had happened. Fair would run and tell Angeal what he had seen and soon the other General would come to see what was going on for himself.

"Why not tell me sooner?" Sephiroth whispered. His icy mask had been completely stripped away, leaving only pain behind. But it was healing pain, not just raw damage. He accepted her. He didn't hate her. The relief almost made her go weak at the knees.

"Could you have believed me without proof? Would you have dared?" she whispered back, right hand rubbing his back in soothing circles. "I needed all the facts, needed to know what had happened to my baby, needed to make sure that if I whisked you away from ShinRa tomorrow that a lack of regular checkups wouldn't kill you. Hojo is a monster; I wouldn't put that kind of thing past him."

Sephiroth's lips twitched into a melancholy attempt at a smile. "So you're the one who broke into the Science Department back in May," he breathed.

Vincent smiled back, shifting to rest her forehead against her son's. "Anything for you," she breathed back, completely in earnest. "I even hacked into the Worldwide Information Network, the ShinRa mainframe and the Turk database. No stone unturned for my boy. You're worth every last risk."

The Silver General made a huffing sound that might have been a chuckle as one lone tear slid down his cheek. "You scared off Angeal's puppy."

"He had no right to see you like this," Vincent replied simply. Sephiroth pulled back a little to really look at her, watching her face searchingly before lunging forward again, pulling her close and holding her tight.

"Thank-you, Valentine," he murmured hoarsely, burying his face in her messy hair, "thank-you _Mother_, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you-"

"Sephiroth?" said a cautious voice outside the closed door. Mother and son both turned to face it.

"It's Angeal," Sephiroth muttered, then spoke more loudly. "Yes, Angeal?"

The General cautiously pushed the door open. "Zack just told me you were kissing a Turk in your office. A Turk who threatened to shoot him for interrupting the two of you." The dark-haired first-class blinked at the sight of Sephiroth tightly wrapped around someone in a blue suit. "I see he didn't make it up."

Sephiroth's face, hidden from Angeal by Vincent's head, lit up as a truly wicked smile spread across his features. "Shall we play with them a little?" the Silver General breathed ever so softly in her ear, eyes sparkling with usually concealed humour. Vincent inclined her head with a sly smile of her own; the sheer relief of things not going badly was leaving her giddy, adrenaline still rushing around her system.

Sephiroth reluctantly let go of Vincent and stepped around her towards the door. "Come in Angeal, there's someone I'd like to introduce you to."

Angeal stepped warily into the office, eyes darting from the overturned paperwork on the floor to Vincent's ruffled appearance, Sephiroth's jacket and shoulder armour lying discarded across the desk and the Silver General's own unusually untidy hair. The Dark General looked very uncomfortable, which made Vincent notice that the situation was indeed rather suggestive: her suit was rumpled and her hair all over the place; Sephiroth had nothing covering his upper body except the straps crossing his shoulders while his face was pink with emotion and his eyes shone like captive stars.

"Angeal, this is my Valentine, the Turk I mentioned meeting in Wutai," Sephiroth purred, eyes glinting as his fingers slid around Vincent's shoulder to dance across the skin under her ear, "Valentine, this is Angeal Hewely, one of my fellow Generals."

The expression on the other General's face was absolutely priceless.

* * *

><p>Mother and son reunite! Then completely discombobulate Zack and Angeal as an encore!<p> 


	13. Inevitable Errors

**Inevitable Errors**

Genesis Rhapsodos was bored. Bored, bored, bored. The was in Wutai was having a lull so all three Generals of SOLDIER were currently in Midgar, but instead of kicking back and having fun like Genesis wanted them to Angeal was spending all his spare time training his puppy Zack Fair while Sephiroth buried himself in paperwork. He didn't even _need_ to do the paperwork! SOLDIER hadn't crashed and burned while Sephiroth was in Wutai not doing paperwork, so why would a few more weeks make any difference?

Genesis swept down the hallway towards the lift, red coat flaring behind him, when he noticed Zack shuffling nervously opposite the door to Sephiroth's office.

"Hey, Zack!" The Crimson General greeted the second-class. "What's up?" Angeal's puppy rarely , if ever, looked either serious or concerned so him being both was almost unprecedented.

Zack jumped and turned to face genesis. "Did _you _know Seph was seeing someone?"

Genesis blinked. "The Iceburg has a girlfriend? _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess._ No, I didn't know. I thought his fanclub had put him off dating and he's not exactly approachable anyway. How did you find out?"

Zack looked embarrassed. "I walked in on Sephiroth kissing a Turk in his office. The Turk pointed a gun at me and told me to get out or die."

Genesis stared for a moment, then it registered that the puppy _wasn't_ having him on and the Crimson General almost fell over laughing. "Se, Sephiroth? In his _office_? Gaia and Cetra he must have it bad," he wheezed between chuckles.

"I _can_ hear you, you know," said a cool voice from across the hall. Genesis looked up to see the Silver General himself standing in the doorway to his office, bangs slightly mussed and coat nowhere in sight. "Come in, both of you," Sephiroth said, pinning them with a chilly stare, "There are things we need to discuss privately."

Genesis immediately followed Sephiroth inside. He may have been jealous of the silver-haired SOLDIER's fame and accomplishments but he really wanted to find out more about the person who'd managed to hack through Sephiroth's standoffish attitude and get the man acting human. Once inside the first thing Genesis noticed was the paperwork scattered across half the floor, then Angeal leaning against a wall looking uncomfortable. Turning to scan the room again, the flamboyant General finally spotted the Turk lurking beside Sephiroth's desk.

He certainly wasn't much to look at. About six feet tall and very slender with loose black hair that drifted around his shoulder-blades and obscured most of his face, all Genesis could be sure of was that he didn't seem to have a spare ounce of fat anywhere. Peeking through the hair was a single red eye over a slice of pale cheekbone and a section of pointed jaw. What was really unusual was the Turk's stillness, like a predator patiently waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. No matter how nondescript -if red eyes could be considered nondescript- Sephiroth's sweetheart was a killer through and through.

Zack entered the room behind him and wandered over to lean on the wall next to Angeal as Sephiroth carefully shut the door behind them.

"The cameras are out and the microphones jammed," Sephiroth said flatly, "so we can speak freely for once. Genesis, please listen rather than just dismissing what I have to say out of hand."

"_My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess,_" Genesis quoted cheerfully, settling down to lounge across one of the chairs. This may not have been how he planned to spend his morning but he certainly wasn't bored any more, so all in all the day was looking up.

"This is Valentine," Sephiroth said as the Turk stepped forward to stand so close to the Silver General their shoulders almost touched. "She's found information about us and the SOLDIER project that we need to hear, even though she really shouldn't be giving the information out."

She? Well, Genesis supposed that Valentine could just as easily be female as male; one of the supermodel types with no curves to speak of. It was hard to tell what she really looked like with the hair obscuring her face. Angeal also seemed to find her gender a surprise; maybe that was why he had been so uncomfortable. No, more likely it was the Turk part. A lot of SOLDIERS had male lovers, mainly because the mako made them so strong they had to be very careful indeed when dealing with unenhanced people. It was difficult to be that careful in bed.

"Generals, second-class Fair," the Turk said politely, inclining her head ever so slightly, "I would prefer you not refer to me in public as I do not officially exist. I have no salary, receive no orders and have no place in the chain of command. President Shinra required plausible deniability for the majority of my... projects."

She paused. Genesis wondered what it was she did that was so against company policy that a _Turk_ needed to have plausible deniability.

"For the past seven years I have been monitoring and investigating the Science Department and their involvement in the SOLDIER program. It makes interesting reading, provided you enjoy horror that is." Valentine paused again, a faintly distasteful moue twisting her mouth. "All three of you Generals have considerable history with the project that you should probably be aware of in the interests of your future health, and if Fair ever intends to make first-class he may wish to learn the risks involved as well."

"Such as?" Genesis drawled, not liking the sound of this. The Turk produced a data disk like a stage magician plucking a playing card for midair.

"Records of professor Hollander's Project G -short for Project Gillian- which was the first experiment in the implantation of J-cells into human test subjects," Valentine said calmly, "and the forerunner of the SOLDIER program. Test subjects are Gillian Hewely, the original, Angeal Hewely, conceived specifically for the program and Genesis Rhapsodos, control specimen and arguably the first ever SOLDIER."

The words hit Genesis like a rampaging Behemoth and Angeal actually swayed, face white as a sheet. "No," the Dark General whispered, stricken. "It can't be..."

"Sephiroth was the product of a parallel project carried out by professor Hojo that used slightly different methods," Valentine continued relentlessly, "for which he gets a disk of his very own and the dubious privilege of being considered the ideal that all later SOLDIERS should be striving to achieve despite not actually being one."

Genesis frowned. "Sephiroth isn't a SOLDIER? Is this some kind of joke? He's the Silver General, the Cetra-damned Hero of Wutai. Of course he's a SOLDIER!"

"I never actually joined like you three did," Sephiroth said dryly. "Hojo just told me one day that the President insisted I do more for the company than just create data and had me shipped out to the front lines in Wutai. I was fourteen."

Genesis certainly hadn't known _that_. Valentine hadn't either by the looks of things since her hand twitched towards her gun for a moment before reaching out to squeeze Sephiroth's hand instead.

"We're test subjects?" Angeal whispered hoarsely, still in shock. "Science projects?"

Valentine's eyes narrowed. "You are people. Human beings. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Being human is a matter of making the right choices and none of you chose this. Except Zackary Fair, that is." The second class seemed startled to suddenly be at the centre of attention.

"What does that say about the puppy, I wonder?" Sephiroth muttered just loud enough for SOLDIER hearing to pick up.

"Hey! That's not nice!" Zack floundered, "I joined because I wanted to be a hero! To help people!"

"I will be sure to attend your funeral then," Valentine said dismissively, "as that is generally the only reward heroics receive."

The puppy looked completely crushed and Angeal frowned, pulling himself together for his protégé's sake. "That was unnecessary," the dark-haired first-class said disapprovingly, "Zack is an excellent SOLDIER."

"I concur," came the surprising reply. "His survival however depends on him learning to look before he leaps. Would you like to read the data disk?" The Turk twirled the flat circle between his fingers.

"I would," Genesis butted in, "_Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return. _I do not want any nasty surprises coming out of the woodwork. Better learn the worst now."

Valentine calmly handed the disk over to the Crimson General. "As I told Sephiroth, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have after you have finished reading."

"Why are you doing this?" Genesis asked. Turks didn't just hand out secret documents and offer to fill in the gaps, especially not undercover Turks. Angeal might, but he was a SOLDIER and ridiculously hung up on honesty and honour.

"For Sephiroth," Valentine said simply, kissing the Silver General on the cheek and heading for the door, "He's the most important person in my life. I'll be around; my PHS number is at the end of the disk, messages only please."

There was a long pause after she left. Genesis broke it. "Well, she's got it _bad_ for you hasn't she Sephiroth? Lucky for us she's the generous type. _The goddess descends from the sky: Wings of light and dark spread afar, she guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting. _Come on Angeal, lets find out how badly the Science Department has screwed us over." the Crimson General dragged his lifetime friend towards the door. "Don't worry Sephiroth, I won't tell on you and Angeal's too honourable. Puppy, heel!"

"Hey! I'm not a dog!" Zack protested as he trailed after his dazed mentor. "What are we going to do about all this?"

"We read the information for ourselves," Angeal said, rousing himself and straightening up, "and make up our own minds as to who has been telling us the truth. Zack, this is both confidential and personal so not a word to anyone in unsecured surroundings. Understood?"

"Yes Angeal."

Genesis wondered how bad this was going to be. _My friend, the fates are cruel..._

* * *

><p>Errors, because everyone makes mistakes. Genesis wanted time in the spotlight, so he gets to go first. Next up will be more Cloud, who is riding to someone's rescue.<em>..<br>_


	14. Abrupt Diversions

**Abrupt Diversions**

By the time Vincent's message arrived on Cloud's PHS telling him to meet her at the apartment in Sector One on the Plate, the blond had been staving off boredom to little effect for some time and resorted to practising with his Materia. On reading the email Cloud bounced to his feet, quickly saddled Dash and caught Placid's reins -Vincent's chocobo was quite possibly the most tolerant and agreeable in existence- and rode off down the hillside towards the outer edge of Sector Five, where there was a chocobo stable that rented out pens. If they ended up staying in the city for more than a month Cloud would call Choco Billy so the farmer could send one of his hands around to take the two black chocobos back to the farm, but for the time being the birds would be fine in a public stable.

Cloud was just entering the gloomy outskirts of the Midgar slums that swelled out from under the Plate when a fight caught his eye. A convoy of ShinRa infantry and four Turks were gradually losing to a group of people wearing very concealing clothing that his Sense Materia identified as SOLDIERs. The Turks were guarding a small girl who couldn't have been older than nine who was handcuffed and cowering behind one of her blue-suited captors. Deciding that whatever either party had in mind for the petite redhead could not possibly be good, Cloud set about organising an impromptu rescue for the very young damsel. Of course, since he didn't want to be recognised as a third party he would need to wear a disguise. A blue suit, to be exact.

The spiky-haired blond actually owned a genuine blue Turk suit: It, alongside a headscarf and a pair of sunglasses, were how he'd infiltrated the ShinRa building last time despite being barely twelve. Nobody stopped Turks, no matter how short they were. Now wearing his disguise Cloud armed himself with his Peacemaker and a few grenades, caste Haste on himself for good measure and joined the fray. Rather than actually fighting per se, the blond instead shot a few of the oddly dressed SOLDIERs in the back with with the Peacemaker, cast a few Death spells with the gun's equipped Destruct Materia and left a trail of grenades in his wake as he zigzagged across the field.

As soon as he reached the other Turks he snatched up the little girl, cast a solid Reflect on himself and his new passenger and took off like a bat out of hell through a nearby alleyway. As the fight behind him escalated now the Turks were no longer on the defensive and his grenades exploded shrapnel everywhere Cloud concentrated on running as fast as he could. As he darted between buildings and across increasingly busy roads the blond began shuffling what he'd managed to lift from both sides of the conflict while he was passing through.

Four high level elixirs, seven miscellaneous potions, five different rings -nifty- a membership card to the Honey Bee Inn -entertaining but not really useful- smoke bombs, some spiderweb, a lot of loco weed, two pieces of phoenix down, a fire veil, eyedrops, maiden's kiss, two remedies, a ShinRa Alpha armlet -very nice- three ShinRa keycards and eight Materia, six of them still equipped in the armlet. He swiftly emptied the armlet of the Revive, Barrier, Fire, Final Attack, Elemental and All that it contained and slipped them into a variety of pockets alongside the loose Throw and Exit he'd stolen. As far as Cloud was concerned pickpocketing while using Haste was the most useful battle skill ever and far more versatile than a measly Steal Materia. The Exit he'd just lifted was exactly what he needed right now, in fact: gripping the Materia in his free hand while a high-powered Bolt spell bounced off his back Cloud coaxed an Escape spell out of it just as one of the armoured SOLDIERs appeared on the road ahead of him, gun pointed right at his face. Cloud focused on his destination -the Sector One train station men's room- as the spell caught him and his passenger and whisked them both away.

* * *

><p>A swirl of green sparks later Cloud was standing in a large and fortunately empty public bathroom. The blond quickly commandeered the nearest toilet cubicle, locked the door behind them and set down the little girl he'd just kidnapped before deactivating the spells still acting on him. Then he got a proper look at his new friend.<p>

Short ginger hair in a bob, big blue eyes, about four foot four with her hands cuffed behind her back and a piece of silver tape covering her mouth, the probably-nine-years-old girl looked very frightened. Cloud quickly removed his sunglasses and headscarf, making his hair bounce back up into its usual chocobo-alike style and dispelling a little of the fear in her eyes. "I'm not really a Turk: I'm only thirteen for one thing," Cloud said conversationally, "so I don't want to get caught impersonating one. ShinRa doesn't like it when people do that. I was passing by and saw the fight: I take it they kidnapped you?"

The petite redhead nodded slowly, looking a little less terrified as Cloud changed into a pair of baggy black trousers, steel-toed boots, long-sleeved green SOLDIER-style jumper and a baggy and very battered brown leather jacket. The sword harness under the jacket may have been what was holding her attention, but Cloud suspected the show he'd put on hiding all his knives had been what caused the tiny twitch in the corner of her mouth. She probably hadn't been expecting a rescue either.

"Okay, as you might have gathered this is a rescue, so if I take the tape off you mouth can you stay calm while I pick the lock on your handcuffs?" The little girl nodded again, so Cloud carefully peeled the silver tape off her mouth. "I'm not going to ask you your name so that if anybody asks I can honestly say I don't know where you are, got that? But if you stick with me I'll look after you for a bit. My mentor is a very kind lady who might be able to help with your little kidnapping problem. Is that okay?"

"Okay," the girl whispered solemnly, eyes fixed on Cloud's face.

"Good girl. Now show me those handcuffs. I'm going to have to change what you look like as well, so I hope you're not too attached to your hair..."

Ten minutes later Cloud's new friend was handcuff-free, wearing some of his old clothes and a spare rucksack with potions and other items in, the newly-pilfered ShinRa Alpha armlet with an Exit and a Barrier in it and a much shorter haircut that stuck up on one side a bit like Cloud's own. The overall effect was of a seven-year-old boy who might well have been Cloud's sibling.

"Listen, the Turks and those other guys will be looking for a nine-year-old girl-" Cloud suspected the 'other guys' were Deepground, but Vincent kept that information locked up tight "-so you are now my baby brother Wolf. Wolf Strife, since I'm Cloud Strife. We're from Nibelhein, but we left when I was ten and you were four so you don't remember anything about it or have the accent. You should act really, really shy just in case so people don't get a good look at your face. Is that okay?"

"I'm called Wolf Strife, you're my big brother Cloud and I'm very shy," the girl whispered with a rather pleasant Kalm accent. "Can I hold onto your belt so we don't get separated?"

"That's an excellent idea," Cloud agreed, smiling warmly at his new 'little brother'. "Come on wolfling, let's go find Vincent. Yes, Vincent is my mentor and she is a woman," he added quickly as they left the bathroom, "Although she doesn't look it. She's good with disguises, which is how I got my suit."

Wolf nodded solemnly, shifted to get a better grip on his belt with her left hand and trotted after him along the platform, keeping her head down and her eyes at knee level. Cloud was very impressed by her acting skills. "You're doing just fine, wolfling," he murmured, "no need to worry."

* * *

><p>Yes, Cloud has sticky fingers. Unlike Yuffie however he doesn't care what he gets so long as it is either useful or can be fenced. He's still a sucker for damsels in distress though.<p>

Below is an omake I felt like writing. If I get twenty reviews today -any chapter, pick your favourite- I'll post an extra chapter.

* * *

><p><span>Omake: True Heir<span>

Cloud had absolutely no idea that his father was the planet's most successful businessman or that his maternal grandfather had been the man who taught General Angeal Hewely how to wield his buster sword. He didn't even know that 'Strife' was neither his mother's married name nor her maiden name. The blond was completely in the dark because he'd never thought to ask Vincent if she knew anything about his family background; the former Turk knew just about everything about her spiky-haired student's heritage.

Despite not having a clue as to where he really came from, Cloud had inherited a great deal from both his father and grandfather. He had his grandfather's knack for bladed weapons, the bigger the better, as well as his travel sickness problem and passion for chocobo racing. From his father President Shinra Cloud had inherited a very keen instinct for turning fluid situations to his advantage, a natural charm that already turned heads, his short stature and ridiculously dynamic hair. It was the unerring instinct for spotting and exploiting weaknesses in the strategies of others that had enabled a thirteen-year-old Cloud to snatch an immobilised nine-year-old Shelke Rui from under the noses of Turks, ShinRa infantry and Deepground forces without any of the three factions realising what had really happened. That President Shinra's plan to integrate the girl with the rare Synaptic Net Drive gift into Deepground had been foiled by the quick-thinking and natural ability of a bastard child the despotic businessman didn't even knew he had was definitely an example of the universe's sense of irony.


	15. Correspondences

Well, I didn't get the twenty reviews so this chapter didn't go up early. Thanks to sunset in love, Houkakyou, The Ninja And The Writer, Kitsune Onna1, Thunderstorm101 and wanderingmusician who actually did review, so this chapter is for you guys. You rock!

**Correspondences**

The disk Sephiroth's Turk had given Genesis did more than shake his world; it upended it, scattering loose pieces everywhere then shattered its foundations. The Crimson General stared vacantly into space while Angeal desperately flicked back and forth through the files, looking for inconsistencies Genesis knew his lifelong friend would never find.

Except Angeal was not merely a friend; the honourable brunet was his _cousin_ as well as a being a fellow experiment.

Genesis jumped when someone knocked on his office door. They'd picked his office to read in since he used it so rarely no-one had bothered to put in a microphone. SOLDIER hearing meant you could pick up on the buzzing of electronic bugs. Sighing, he went over and yanked the door open; Sephiroth was standing outside.

"How bad is it?" the Silver General whispered once the door was closed again with them both on the inside, tone somehow less harsh than usual. Genesis' eye twitched. He did _not_ want Sephiroth's pity. He opened his mouth to say something flippant and snarky when Sephiroth cut him off.

"Look," the black-clad General hissed through gritted teeth, "I am the clone of a Turk Hojo organised a 'laboratory accident' for with a bit of DNA from two other scientists mixed in to add some variety. One of said scientists was the surrogate who gave birth to me and had J-cell injected into her so they would transfer to me in the womb. After being born I was left in Hojo's care and raised in his lab as an ongoing experiment and test subject until I was fourteen. My Turk progenitor and only genuine parent is Vincent Valentine, only child of Grimoire Valentine, who also gave you that disk and was herself one of Hojo's experimental projects before he locked her in a coffin to keep her away from me. Now, _how. Bad. Is. It?_"

Genesis... _stare_d. Sephiroth _never_ shared personal information. Ever. It was all locked down tighter than President Shinra's personal bank account. Wait a minute...

"The Turk in your office this morning is your _mother_?"

Sephiroth actually smirked, the humour animating his face as his eyes sparkled. "You all jump to conclusions far to easily," the Silver General said blandly. "I said nothing to suggest she was anything else."

Genesis couldn't help it. He fell over on the floor and roared with laughter. The chuckles soon devolved into semi-hysterical giggles as his eyes teared up but the drop in tension was nonetheless a relief.

"Genesis?" Angeal said worriedly, looking from the hysterical redhead on the floor to a vaguely smug-looking Sephiroth leaning on the closed door. "What's so funny?"

"Valentine is actually Sephiroth's _mother_, Angeal," Genesis managed to get out between hiccups. "They were having us on. Sephiroth, son of _Vincent Valentine_." The giggles overwhelmed him again.

Angeal blinked. "Vincent Valentine? A woman? Wait- that was Vincent earlier?" A pause, broken only by Genesis' uneven breathing. "Sephiroth's my _nephew_?"

That set Genesis off again, wheezing and pounding the carpet with his fist as he rolled across the floor.

"I'm your nephew?" Sephiroth repeated, bemused, which only made Genesis laugh harder. Cetra his ribs hurt.

"Yes," Angeal confirmed, pointing to the computer screen as Sephiroth wandered over to look. "The Chaos Project was the start of it all. It lasted five years, from 1970 to 1975 and ended with the death of Grimoire Valentine in an explosion in the lab. Since it was his project, funding was cut off and everyone working on it was reassigned.

"During the project itself professor Valentine went through lab assistants like water, needing new ones every eight to ten months as they succumbed to various cancers and tumours, yet Grimoire himself remained perfectly healthy despite working on the project personally throughout.

"Professor Hollander later theorised that Valentine's genetics were somehow more resistant to mutagenic factors, so when Project J -whatever that is- entered the final experimental phase they decided that the best choice for a specimen was one with Grimoire Valentine's DNA in. I'm actually his son, conceived from a frozen sample in the ShinRa cell bank. Genesis however came into the project completely by accident when Grimoire's younger brother Codex Valentine had an affair with President Shinra's wife and got her pregnant. She promptly went to Hollander for an abortion, but he persuaded her to go through with the pregnancy and promised to make the child disappear. Apparently he told the President the child was both legitimate and a stillborn. Anyway, Hollander couldn't use Mrs Shinra as a test subject so he injected my mother's infected cells directly into Genesis' developing foetus. For some reason or other after he was born Hollander decided Genesis was a failure and he was handed off to foster parents in Banora."

"So you are my uncle and Genesis is my cousin once removed," Sephiroth concluded.

Genesis laughter finally devolved into real tears. "I'm a failure, a _dud_," he muttered viciously.

"So was Valentine," Sephiroth said, cool voice cutting through the rising fog of misery. "Yet she told me that she refuses to be defined by the idiocy of narrow-minded scientists playing with things better left untouched. Apparently the family motto is 'Valentines overcome'."

"I think I'll stick with Hewley," Angeal said dryly. "'Angeal Valentine' doesn't really sound right."

Genesis was feeling horribly off-balance but if Angeal could crack a joke then so could he. "I'll keep Rhapsodos. We don't need two General Valentines, especially when there's a Turk Valentine as well." He climbed to his feet and froze as a hand touched his upper arm.

Sephiroth looked slightly uncertain, but said, "There is nothing wrong with tears."

"What, so you cried when you found out?" Genesis snapped.

"Yes."

The answer silenced the redhead. Sephiroth had _cried_. Had actually admitted to _him_, Genesis Rhapsodos, who always teased and poked at the Silver General's foibles, that he had cried. Another one of Genesis' lifelong certainties crashed and burned. " I never had a mother and I was told Hojo was my father, Hojo who never hesitated to cause me pain and to whom I was a specimen, not a person," the Silver General continued slowly. "Angeal's mother loves him; your foster parents clearly cared for you. I've never had anyone like that before." Sephiroth paused, looking terribly young and fragile to Genesis for one frightening moment. "She told me she intended to kill Hojo for me. No-one's ever offered to do that before either."

Genesis had been vaguely aware of Sephiroth's dislike for the professor in charge of the SOLDIER program but hadn't known the hatred went that deep.

"What I want to know is what these J-cells are," Angeal said into the silence, "and what they do exactly. Hollander's notes suggest the effects are positive yet the peripheral data Valentine placed on the disk is overwhelmingly negative. So why the contradiction and who is right?"

"There was another disk with a 'J' on it," Sephiroth said distantly. "Valentine still has it."

"I have a sister," Angeal said suddenly, "and she's a Turk."

"Technically a former Turk," Sephiroth corrected.

"A former Turk then; she's twice my age, Sephiroth's mother _and _one of Hojo's old science projects," the Dark General went on, eyes going glassy, "and she still looks twenty despite being older than _my_ mother. Gaia and Cetra I need a drink."

"We _all_ need drinks," Genesis decided. "Lots of drinks. You two get the paperwork dashed off and I'll rope the puppy into helping me buy all the alcohol we can carry. Come by my place as soon as you've finished and we'll all get drunk together. Bring the disks; we don't want anyone else to find them."

"Until later then," Sephiroth said with a nod before turning on his heel and walking out the door. Genesis stopped by the bathroom to clean up before heading to the lift: his life may have just been kicked over but that was no excuse to look less that utterly magnificent.

"_My friend, do you fly away now? To a world that abhors you and I? All that awaits you is a somber morrow no matter where the winds may blow."_ He quoted softly to himself, then shook his head resolutely. He refused to run away or even entertain denial in the face of this new knowledge, especially when Sephiroth -who he could _see_ was barely clinging onto his composure by his fingernails- was standing firm and meeting the issue head-on. _Even if the morrow is barren of promises nothing shall forestall my return._ The Iceberg and Angeal were family -real family now it so happened- and even Angeal's puppy wasn't bad. They would stick together. Besides, Vincent Valentine the former Turk was his cousin too and she seemed to have a plan. If she'd waited this long and spent this much time digging into the Science Department's sordid history she had to have some kind of plan. Especially since she had been a Turk once.

* * *

><p>More Genesis, who is more complicated than anyone else bar Sephiroth, and they all decide to get drunk until the shock wears off. By the way, Vincent gets her twisty Turk nature from her own mother; Angeal's honest straightforwardness is all Grimoire Valentine.<p>

Since twenty reviews was too ambitious, how about ten? Again, I have a new chapter lined up ready to post if ten different people give me some feedback and review.


	16. Third Iteration

I'm impatient; so sue me. I'm posting this now anyway despite not getting all the reviews; Thanks to Vampireangel, Diamond Fox, Kitsune Onna1 (again!) and Neela who reviewed the last chapter.

**Third Iteration**

Vincent Valentine was a Turk. Even though she had not been on the ShinRa payroll for over two decades all the skills and habits she had acquired in her eleven-year career had not just gone away during her seventeen-year imprisonment. She was a spy, an assassin, a bodyguard, an enforcer, a thief, a hacker, a kidnapper, a blackmailer and above all an 'accident specialist'. However, it seemed that the Goddess in her infinite wisdom felt that Vincent's repertoire was insufficient and had proceeded to thrust new roles upon her. Mother first of all, followed swiftly by test subject and avatar. Then had come researcher, tutor, monster hunter and role model -two of them courtesy of Cloud- while she was still in Nibelheim. Next had come the three-year-long trip across the planet and a whole slew of new roles; she had gone from tutor and role model to surrogate parent, for one thing. Cloud was fortunately a very well-adjusted boy and had been a very helpful test-dummy for Vincent's developing parenting skills.

The former Turk had become among other things a chocobo trainer and breeder, a mechanic, a messenger, a treasure hunter, a supplier, an artist, a con-artist -that had been an interesting week- a musician, a smuggler and -on one memorable occasion- a peal diver. Now that they had finally settled in Midgar for at least a year Cloud seemed determined to add 'harbourer of fugitives' and 'bleeding heart' to the list if the little redhead with the spiky haircut wearing his old clothes was anything to go by. From the blond's brief summary of events the girl was probably Shelke Rui, a nine-year-old with the rare Synaptic Net Drive gift. There had been a Turk mission to forcibly recruit her into SOLDIER in the database last time she hacked in.

Vincent sighed. "Wolf, there are sandwiches on the kitchen table; help yourself. Cloud, a proper report please."

The little girl vanished into the kitchen while her blond rescuer went over the past hour in greater detail, going so far as to empty his spoils out across the coffee table as a story aid. Vincent picked out two elixirs, two hi-potions, an ex-potion, the Honey Bee Inn membership card, the ShinRa keycards, some of the loco weed and three of the Materia. The Fire was a manufactured Materia and not worth keeping and the Barrier was similarly pathetic, while the Elemental was of no particular use to either of them and therefore better off being sold. On their travels Cloud had got into the habit of keeping all the items not currently in use while Vincent was in charge of the money, so the former Turk never took more than a few days' worth of supplies off him at a time unless he had acquired something off her short list of contraband. Like the keycards, for instance.

"Leave your inventory here and go eat lunch while I set up a kit for your new sibling," Vincent said shortly once Cloud finished talking. The blond smiled so brightly at her concession that she felt her own lips quirk up in response to his unabashed delight.

"Thank-you," her protégé said sincerely before dumping his bag on the sofa and making for the kitchen. Vincent sighed and set about putting together a pack for a cross-dressing nine-year-old girl at risk of being abducted by SOLDIERs and Turks...

PHS, Protect ring, Sprint shoes, two lucky amulets, two hi-potions, a turbo ether, two antidotes, three remedies, six lots of smoke bombs, three hero drinks, two vaccines, seven shrapnel bombs, four spider webs, an hourglass, dream powder, a lot of loco weed, dragon's scales, two ink, three dazers, four changes of Cloud's old clothing, a toothbrush, soap, a towel, emergency cash, a street map of both levels of Midgar with the train map on the back and a headband. Tapping her metal-clawed fingertips on the tabletop Vincent dug through their bags to find a suitable armlet for her new charge.

Eventually she decided upon the Chocobracelet Cloud had won racing in Gold Saucer for the dexterity and luck it conferred: Shelke -now going by Wolf Strife- would need to be both quick and lucky in order to avoid and escape confrontations that, given her current age and size, she would not be able to win. Vincent equipped the bracelet with the newly stolen Exit Materia, a Mystify and a Transform, the latter two mastered and from her own collection; the former Turk doubted Wolf had ever used Materia before and those two were good ones to start learning with. They also created good distraction, which went with the escape theme. Now all that was left was to find out what kind of weapon would suit his new student.

Like Cloud, Wolf proved utterly inept with firearms on her first try; Vincent was very grateful she'd had the forethought to give her a handgun with an empty magazine. Unlike her new brother however she was similarly bemused by swords and knives: she kept trying to skewer or bludgeon rather than slash. Watching her graceless handling of Cloud's twin short swords did however give Vincent an idea of what weapon might suit her better, so after the blond had retrieved his blades she gave them her conclusion:

"Short staves."

Wolf looked puzzled but Cloud's face lit up in comprehension. "Electromags perhaps, like the crazy redheads?"

"Maybe later," Vincent said repressively. The duo Cloud had dubbed 'the crazy redheads' were a pair of Turk brothers who both used collapsible electromagnetic rods. The younger of the two was about seventeen years old, being four years older than Cloud; Vincent believed his name was Reno. The older one was in his early twenties and rode a customised motorcycle.

"Wolf, your gift enables you to receive memories, correct?" Vincent asked her, making eye contact. The redhead's own eyes widened, but she nodded silently. "Good. I want you to copy Cloud's memories of his non-combat-related lessons between the ages of eight and thirteen and general memories of what he has seen while travelling the world in the past three years," the former Turk said calmly. "Cloud, you are to teach your new sibling physical conditioning and magic; when she reaches minimal competence in a few months take her out into the slums to practice against low-level monsters. I am going out to buy weapons for her and will be calling Choco Billy to ask if Aqua and Climber are ready to breed again since Wolf will need her own chocobo." Aqua and Climber were Cloud and Vincent's blue and green chocobos that had been reduced to breeding stock once the two blacks were old enough to ride.

Having secured from Cloud a promise that he would not leave the apartment until she got back Vincent set out to find a weapons shop that didn't ask for a ShinRa permit at the door. In other words, Wall Market.

* * *

><p>Vincent is such a softie, isn't she? In this chapter I get to mention two more Turks, getting the count of canon Turks up to, hmm, four not including Vincent herself. No, my bad: five. I count the Before Crisis playable Turks as canon, by the way, though I've had to give them actual names.<p> 


	17. Variable Convergence

**Variable Convergence**

Sephiroth opened his eyes, then quickly shut them again as a stabbing pain bloomed between his eyes. This had to be a hangover; he'd occasionally heard other SOLDIERs complaining about them after a night spent drinking. Sephiroth himself had never before actually managed to consume enough alcohol to get himself drunk -the level of his Mako enhancements made it very difficult- so a hangover was a new experience for him. He groaned, slapped a hand over his overly-sensitive eyes and shuffled off Genesis' couch towards the kitchen. Hangovers were a product of alcohol-induced dehydration, so water should ease the pain in his head.

The Silver General stumbled into his colleague's kitchen clad only in a crumpled pair of black leather trousers and poured himself a glass of water out of the tap. Then another. And another.

Five minutes later the thumping headache had subsided to a faint background buzz, allowing Sephiroth to actually notice his surroundings. Lined up three deep on all of the kitchen worktops were a multitude of empty bottles, their labels announcing the high alcohol content of their contents. Former contents. Vodka, rum, liqueurs of various kinds and even a few smaller bottles of rare dumbapple cider, the kitchen alone contained enough glassware to stock a bar and Sephiroth could see more bottles in the living room through the open door, clustered around the coffee table and lurking behind the couch. How much had they actually drunk last night anyway?

That idle thought set his memory grinding and he blushed slightly pink as the previous evening's events danced through his mind. Thank Gaia they'd done all their drinking inside closed doors: he did _not_ want his fanclub to ever find out that the Silver General was physically affectionate when he got intoxicated. The alcohol had lowered his inhibitions to the point that he became positively clingy, which was only marginally better than Genesis' abrupt mood-swings that bounced back and forth between maudlin, giddy and comfort-seeking and far, far worse that Angeal's cheerfully meandering philosophical monologue.

It had taken the three of them four hours to get drunk and consistent maintenance thereafter to _stay_ drunk, but they had succeeded to the point that Sephiroth had spent the second half of their drinking session snuggled up against Angeal as the Dark General rambled about how important honour was and why finding out his true parentage and background affected that. Meanwhile Genesis had switched between happily toasting his new family, bemoaning the lies his foster parents had told him and joining the other two on the couch to cuddle close and hum contentedly. Sephiroth suspected the redhead had been a lot drunker than either Angeal or himself to act like that.

Everything had started winding down around three in the morning when Sephiroth had for some reason or other decided to call his mother. Instead of being angry at getting a drunken PHS call in the middle of the night Valentine -he couldn't call her Vincent; the name just didn't work on her- had listened patiently to his drunken rambling, asked if he'd been drinking and on receiving confirmation agreed to come around to Genesis' apartment and tuck him in to bed as per his slurred request. She had arrived on the doorstep a little while later, black-clad and red-caped with metallic gold coverings on her boots that matched the gauntlet on her left arm and somehow steered both Angeal and Genesis into the apartment's lone bedroom and got both of them into the massive double bed with very little fuss; the Silver General suspected she had used a Manipulate Materia.

Valentine had then found a pillow and blanket for Sephiroth to use and tucked him in on the couch, which was both comfortable and long enough for him to stretch out on. She'd even given him a goodnight kiss on the forehead and wished him sweet dreams, which was the kind of motherly thing Sephiroth had never experienced before. He would treasure that moment forever even if he never, ever admitted it out loud.

Genesis had been right, though Sephiroth would probably never tell him so; getting drunk _had_ helped. He didn't intend to repeat the experience any time soon though.

* * *

><p>As Sephiroth became aware of pained noises coming from the bedroom there was a quick knock on the apartment door. Curious as to who it might be and still not entirely sober, the Silver General wandered over and unlocked the door. "Yes?"<p>

"Er, down here," said a rather young voice. Sephiroth looked down. There was a boy aged twelve or thirteen standing in the hall well below his usual line of sight with a bulky carrier bag hanging from each hand and the most defiant blond hair the Silver General had ever seen. The boy looked like he had a chocobo crest grafted to his skull.

"Hi, I'm Cloud," the blond said with a slight smile. "I'm Vincent's student; I heard about last night and thought you might like a cooked breakfast. Don't worry about getting to work: We sent Zack a message and he got Director Lazard to give all three of you today and tomorrow off, though he said that if you want more holiday you have to take it in turns."

Sephiroth just stared at the short blond on Genesis' doorstep who had just addressed him without either fear or slavish adoration in his voice. True the boy's face was a bit pink, but then again Sephiroth was only wearing his leather trousers and still looked rumpled and half-asleep. "You're Valentine's student?" he managed, stepping aside so this new phenomenon could walk inside. "She didn't mention you."

"Well you _are_ her long-lost son so it isn't so surprising the conversation hasn't got that far yet," Cloud said lightly as he made for the kitchen, "and she doesn't trust easily as a rule. I've been her student for five years but I only learned she was a woman six months ago!"

"She told me almost right away," Sephiroth murmured as the blond lit the gas hob, produced a griddle pan from a bag and placed it on the heat before clearing away some of the bottles. "Are you training to be a Turk then?"

"Me? No, I want to be in SOLDIER," Cloud said cheerfully, lifting two covered jugs full of pancake mix out of his bags. "Vincent says I'm too open and idealistic to make a good Turk. Besides, I've got a knack for disproportionately big swords and Turks don't use them. SOLDIER is a better fit for my talents and any Turk skills I've picked up will just give me a bit more versatility."

"I see." Sephiroth was utterly entranced. Here was a practical, down-to-earth and friendly person who didn't dissolve into a puddle on incoherent goo when faced with the infamous Silver General and wanted to join SOLDIER for a sensible reason instead of the usual blatant hero worship or wide-eyed idealism. "How old are you?"

"Nearly fourteen," Cloud said, pouring out three glasses of orange juice. "I'll be applying for autumn enrollment, just after my birthday: Vincent's agreed to sign off the paperwork so I can get in despite being under age."

There were vaguely zombie-like sounds from the main room and Sephiroth handed over two of the glasses of juice to Angeal and Genesis as the duo stumbled into the kitchen. Genesis drained his in one go and held out the glass for more while Angeal sipped his drink more slowly. Cloud refilled the Crimson General's glass twice before the redhead finally noticed there was a stranger in his kitchen.

"Who are you, kid?"

"Cloud Strife, apprentice adventurer," the blond said cheerfully, spikes bouncing as he checked the temperature of the griddle. "I'm cooking pancakes. Want some? I brought three types of jam, two kinds of syrup and a load of stewed dumbapples for toppings."

Genesis grinned in appreciation and reached out to ruffle the boy's hair. "I don't care where you found him Sephiroth, you'll just have to share him," the Crimson General said grandly, totally unbothered by the fact that he wasn't wearing any more than Sephiroth was. "I'll go set the table." He left to hunt down cutlery while Angeal stayed in the kitchen, watching Cloud spoon pancake mix onto the hot griddle.

"You mentioned Vincent Valentine, Cloud?" the Dark General prompted.

"I've known her since I was eight and persuaded my mother to officially apprentice me to her when I was ten," Cloud explained as he flipped the little round over. "We've spent the past three years travelling all over and I though Sephiroth might like to hear some stories since Vincent's not much of a talker."

"I would like that," Sephiroth agreed. He liked Cloud already.

"Good," the blond said with a slightly evil smile. "How about the time we broke the bank in Golden Saucer and almost got thrown in jail? The story of how we actually got into Wutai despite there being a war on? Or maybe the con we ran in Mideel that time? Or do you want to hear about how Vincent got eight Turks to run around like headless chickens for over three hours in Costa del Sol without them ever finding out who was responsible?"

"That last one sounds entertaining," Sephiroth decided, lips twitching up in the corners at the images the blond's words had called up.

"Right then. This happened back in December. I'm still not entirely sure _why_ she did it, but Vincent promised this bomb specialist that she'd get his Turk stalkers off his back for an afternoon, so..."

* * *

><p>Sephiroth Valentine, meet Cloud Strife. Cloud, meet Sephiroth. Let the planet tremble in fear of what is to come!<p> 


	18. Deterministic Systems

Yep, it's an extra chapter! I got really nice reviews for the last chapter so this one's going up a bit early as a thank-you.

**Deterministic Systems**

The three Generals did not get around to asking Vincent for the J disk until the afternoon of the day after their drunken binge. The former Turk had never personally understood the appeal of alcohol even before Nibelheim and now she had Chaos in her she couldn't even get tipsy, let alone falling-down-drunk. Meeting a less-inhibited Sephiroth had however been a reasonably pleasant experience, as in his intoxicated state her son had demonstrated that he, too, craved the emotional contact that she did.

The PHS message came late in the afternoon while Cloud was taking Wolf for a run around the block to build up her stamina; Vincent therefore sent her blond student a message of her own so he knew where she'd gone and slipped away to the agreed-upon contact point, a discreet infonet café in Sector eight a block away from LOVELESS Avenue.

Even when dressed in street clothes the three Generals were not hard to find: three tall, good-looking and muscular men, however they are dressed, cannot help but draw the eye. Surprisingly Sephiroth was the least conspicuous, his long silver hair braided and hidden down the back of the jumper he was wearing and a hat hiding his scalp and startlingly green eyes.

"Gentlemen," Vincent murmured as she joined their table in the back of the room. Her clothing was anything but subtle; her compromise with Chaos meant that, while he would allow her to dress discreetly if disguise was essential, on a day-to-day basis she had to look the part of his avatar. As a result she drew the eye even more than the Generals did.

"What's with the vampire costume?" Genesis asked. "Going to a party this evening?"

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "It isn't a vampire costume," she said shortly. "Did you have questions?"

"Just the one," Genesis responded quietly, not put off by her terseness. "What's your plan?"

"The plan," the former Turk murmured. "My original plan was very simple, but evolving circumstances have forced complications on me with each additional player. As it is you will need to read the next disk in order for the plan to make sense to you."

"How did you get copies of all that data?" Angeal asked.

Vincent shot the Dark General a sideways glance. "I was a Turk. Digging up dirt on people is part of the job."

"What is your ultimate goal?" Sephiroth asked softly, green eyes meeting his mother's red.

Vincent smiled. It was the kind of smile that Hellmasker wore underneath his mask. "Hojo dead, his projects dismantled and a happy family. A change in the ShinRa senior management and company policy would not go amiss either." Her reading into Mako led her to believe that relying on the Reactors for power was dangerously unsustainable; AVALANCHE's rather brutal policy was not however the best way to enact change. She was keeping tabs on Reeve Tuesti, director of Urban Development, as he seemed the most likely person to find a viable alternative to surviving off the lifeblood of the planet.

"Lets see this disk then," Genesis said impatiently, adjusting the screen of the table's computer so it couldn't be seen by anyone except the three incognito SOLDIERs. Vincent agreeably handed over the J disk and pulled out a sheaf of recently-pilfered medical notes and her notebook: five years of obsessive study had made her reasonably capable of understanding both the medical jargon and the concepts needed to make sense of the cellular biology that riddled all of the projects managed by professors Hojo and Hollander. Besides, what Chaos had told her last night while she was getting the Generals to go to bed had been very enlightening.

First had been Chaos referring to the JENOVA cells in all three Generals as 'the Calamity' which had caught the former Turk's attention as that phrase turned up frequently in Cetran history. Second had been her tenant's assertion that he could neutralise the J-cells in her son's body so that '_the Calamity cannot spread_', which he promised would prevent JENOVA from communicating with Sephiroth as a bonus. As Vincent intended to sabotage Hojo's 'Reunion Theory' almost on principle, that Chaos had _offered_ to help her do so was an opportunity to be taken advantage of; however before doing so she needed to work out the mechanics of the process for her own peace of mind.

In her notebook she scribbled 'Chaos = disorder', then 'genetic chaos = mutation = change and/or death'. Then she wrote 'denature' and circled it. Denaturing viruses made them inert, deforming the genetic structure so they could no longer reproduce. What the WEAPON bound within her body seemed to be saying was that it could channel tiny tendrils of its energy into the cells affected by the JENOVA virus and denature those sections which enabled communication, cloning and absorption of external genetic traits, which would in turn prevent 'the Calamity' from spreading without adversely affecting the hosts. The cells would still be present and usable, but 'brain dead' for lack of a better term.

Vincent flicked through the stolen paperwork again; she'd copied these from professor Hollander, who seemed to be concerned about Genesis' current rates of cell turnover. The phrase 'steadily escalating' was not the kind of thing that boded well, especially when JENOVA was involved.

Sephiroth made a sound like an angry cat, prompting Vincent to look up from her reading. Genesis looked disgusted, Sephiroth was white with fury and Angeal seemed sickened.

"Charming reading, isn't it?" the former Turk murmured.

Sephiroth snarled. "Hollander at least truly believed the cells were Cetran; Hojo knew _exactly_ what he was doing yet did it anyway. He told me Jenova was my _mother_! That, that _thing_ is just a parasite, a virus and a tumour on the face of the planet. I want no part in that mad scientist's sick delusions."

"Is there a cure?" Angeal whispered hoarsely.

Vincent put down her notes and tapped her clawed fingertips on the tabletop. "what do you three know about viruses?"

Genesis shrugged. "They make you sick until your body fights them off and most SOLDIERS rarely catch them. Angeal and I never really did previously anyway."

"Your body fights them to a standstill; they cannot be purged completely as they are not truly alive, more like pieces of computer coding than actual cells," Vincent corrected carefully. "Viral vaccines use denatured viruses that are unable to reproduce in order to provoke an immune response without actually endangering the body. Normal SOLDIERs get what could be called 'JENOVA vaccines' when they are promoted to first-class, augmenting Mako with J-cells that settle in the host's body yet are inert. You three on the other hand have living, breeding colonies that are rapidly approaching maturity." She tapped the stolen medical notes for emphasis. Genesis frowned as he noticed what she was reading but didn't comment.

"What happens when the colony matures?" Angeal asked quietly.

Vincent shrugged. "It tries to take over."

There was a very nasty silence.

"I do have a possible solution to hand," Vincent offered as black depression and grim rage settled over the trio like mist. "Though it is neither proven nor scientific."

"Anything is better than this," Genesis hissed, gesturing at the screen. "I _refuse_ to be a monster, let alone a puppet for a colony of alien flu!"

"My solution is related to the Chaos project," Vincent explained carefully and obliquely, "as Lucretia Crescent experimented on me with the tainted Mako my father was studying."

Angeal looked startled by the revelation. "How are you still alive?"

"Exceptional circumstances," Vincent bit out. She didn't like talking about Chaos; possession made people twitchy and telling Sephiroth _now_ that she had a summon/WEAPON hybrid living within her would not go down well. "I did however gain the means to harness the entropy and direct it at specific sections of the genetic structure of the JENOVA virus, which should enable me to denature them in situ. However this is just the theory: even if I succeed there may be spontaneous mutations as side-effects."

"Rock and a hard place," Genesis muttered, eyes tracing the words on the papers Vincent had put on the table. "_There are no dreams, no honour remains; The arrow has left the bow of the Goddess._ We don't have a choice."

"How soon can you do this?" Angeal asked.

_Whenever they wish; the Calamity must die!_ Chaos interjected, giving away that he'd not actually been as asleep as she'd believed. Vincent did not by so much as a single twitch give away that one of the voices in her head had just shouted in her ear.

"Organise a week or two off and I can do it right away. You''ll probably be sick for a bit and I'm not sure how many changes your bodies will go through as they adapt or how long said changes will take."

"I'll go first," Angeal offered.

"No, I will," Genesis said vehemently, scowling at Vincent's copies of Hollander's notes. "I appear to have less time than either of you do. If something goes wrong with me there'll be time to refine the procedure for you two. Bastard didn't even _tell_ me that he thinks I've only got a few months left before my body starts deteriorating. Bloody scientists. _To spare the sands, the seas, the skies I offer thee this silent sacrifice._"

"You don't do silent Genesis," Sephiroth said dryly, "but your point stands."

"Book two weeks' holiday with Lazard and pray for the best," Vincent told the redhead, collecting her notes and removing the data disk from the computer. "While the procedure will certainly cripple the virus I have no idea what it will do to you."

* * *

><p>A bit of angsty drama to balance out the humour. Chaos likes my Vincent because she is perfectly happy to raise hell for a 'good cause'; ie: protect Sephiroth. Thus, she actually gets to be his avatar rather than just his prison cell. Chaos also thinks Cloud is both cute and entertaining, but that's beside the point.<p> 


	19. Adverse Shifts

**Adverse Shifts**

Ever since the undercover Turk had revealed that all three Generals had been conceived through Shinra-sponsored science projects and that Sephiroth had never even signed the official waver Zack had been very worried. The confidentiality thing meant he couldn't even discuss the situation with Kunsel, which was his usual way of working out problems. Worse, Genesis had taken three weeks leave right after the two days off Zack had arranged when the Generals got absolutely plastered together.

Not that Zack had seen them get drunk, but the sheer quantity of alcohol that the second-class had helped Genesis to buy pretty much guaranteed that the three most highly augmented individuals in the SOLDIER program would get reasonably intoxicated. The message to his PHS at four in the morning asking him to ask Lazard to organise two days off for Angeal, Sephiroth and Genesis to recover in was also a dead give-away.

The real problem Zack had with Genesis not being there was that the other two Generals seemed upset by his absence. Not the usual irritated-upset either: Angeal was driving him to exhaustion with one-on-one training and simulations and brooding silently over meals while Sephiroth stalked around under a black thundercloud of almost tangible ire that radiated off him in waves, setting off the fight-or-flight instincts of everyone below first-class. The Silver General had trashed the simulation room twice in the past week, actually _volunteered_ to beat up dozens of the Weapons Development Department's latest batch of combat robots -he had dismembered all of them with extreme prejudice- and been so short with all and sundry that the non-military staff were actively avoiding him while infantry and SOLDIER alike jumped out of his way and saluted as if their lives depended on it whenever he passed them in the halls. Zack _knew_ something was badly wrong, but his mentor wasn't talking and approaching Sephiroth would be suicide. The only other person in the know was Valentine, but the second-class had no idea how to reach her.

Or did he? Zack paused outside the lifts on the second floor. The other day Angeal had mentioned that the mysterious Turk had a protégé who wanted to join SOLDIER and told really good stories. Short and blue-eyed with spiky blond hair, wore a green, long-sleeved version of the SOLDIER uniform jumper and a brown leather jacket. Name of Cloud Strife.

Kunsel could find anyone; sometimes Zack wondered how the Turks had missed recruiting him. Unless they hadn't and Kunsel was their SOLDIER inside informant.

Dismissing that last idea as ridiculous the second-class went looking for his friend and colleague.

* * *

><p>Kunsel <em>had<em> heard of Cloud; the boy was apparently making a name for himself in the slums as a low-level monster hunter willing to accept items, accessories or Materia rather than hard cash, which made him rather popular in a place where most people didn't have gil to spare. Three hours later the well-connected second-class had managed to set up a meeting with the enterprising thirteen-year-old in a coffee shop in Sector Four on the Plate. Zack had no idea what there was in Sector Four to catch a barely-teenage monster hunter's interest: it was strictly residential, mainly occupied by people who were moderately well-off but not really rich. Sector Five was factories, infantry barracks and the cadet training ground, which was as grungy as it got on the Plate, so the neighbouring Sector was as down-market as housing could be outside the slums.

They reached the bustling coffee shop with time to spare and were directed by the waitress to a table in the back corner where a small blond with chocobo-esque spikes was eating a pastry as if he had all the time in the world with a rather large katana leaning against his chair.

"So you're the one whose been undercutting SOLDIER lately for lower level missions," Kunsel said amiably, pulling up a chair and making himself comfortable. The boy grinned across the table at the second-class, not in the slightest bit perturbed by the helmet concealing the man's face.

"Cloud Strife as requested, SOLDIER second-class Kunsel. I've been wanting to meet you for _ages_."

"Oh?" Zack could have sworn his friend looked uncomfortable for a moment there.

Cloud grinned toothily. "I know people who know people, and all those people hear all kinds of things," the boy said conversationally, eyes never leaving Kunsel's visor. "Some of them recommended I get in touch with you, since you hear things I don't and may need information I have."

"Another information junkie?" Zack blurted out incredulously. "Is there a club or something?"

"Or something," Cloud said agreeably. "I know things you don't know and you know things I don't know. That was the purpose of this meeting, wasn't it? To share information?"

"I guess," Zack conceded, scratching his head. "I'm worried about Angeal. He's been weird lately."

"Your scrupulously honest and honourable mentor has discovered some of the skeletons lurking in the company closet," the short blond said gravely, "which has naturally upset him. General Hewley is an idealist and believes all others to be like him until proven otherwise. To suddenly discover that his sense of right and wrong actually puts him in a minority was a shock and he is still conflicted. Give him time."

"How do you _know_ this stuff?" Kunsel asked. "There's no way you could have gotten inside ShinRa."

Cloud smiled lazily. "Kunsel, you specialise in the practical. My field is the covert, illegal and esoteric. What mundane interests I do have are all connected to where those underlying areas come closer to the surface."

"But you're thirteen!" Zack protested.

"Who suspects kids?" the blond asked rhetorically. "And for your information, I can get around the ShinRa building just fine. It's not exactly well-secured."

"Why aren't you joining the Turks?" Zack just had to know. The boy was practically a Turk already, blue suit or not.

Cloud made a face. "They'd wring me dry or make me disappear for knowing far too much about the company's dirty laundry. No thanks. SOLDIER is where it's at; the information is just a hobby."

Kunsel chuckled. "I look forward to seeing you in our ranks then Cloud Strife; I could do with a successor to watch out for the newer SOLDIERs. What's your PHS number?"

Having exchanged numbers with the surprisingly adult blond the helmeted second-class left the coffee shop, leaving Zack behind to ask his more sensitive questions alone.

"So, what do you really want to know?" Cloud asked after ordering a glass of lemonade.

Zack slumped. "Am I really that obvious?"

Cloud smiled gently. "My mentor quite possibly epitomises the essence of what it truly means to be a Turk. I've been her student for five years and you are naturally a very open person. It's their anger that's bothering you, isn't it? The rumours coming out of ShinRa these days are very... alarming."

"Yeah," Zack muttered, leaning his elbows on the table and clutching at his hair. "Angeal's mostly moping but Sephiroth radiates so much rage even non-SOLDIERs can sense him coming. I'm getting tagged more and more often to take him paperwork and messages 'cause everyone else except Angeal is terrified of getting skewered and people know he won't kill me because I'm Angeal's protégé. The infantry are starting to _run away_ when they see him."

Cloud sighed. "Zack Fair, I am really, really sorry you are having to deal with this."

"D'you think Valentine could come by and talk to him?" Zack asked hopefully. "Even for just a little bit? It might help."

Cloud shook his head. "Valentine's tied up helping Genesis with a project; neither of them are available until next week at the soonest. Look, how about I come and help? Seph knows me and I know what the problem is so I won't set him off by accident. We can filch a secretary-type uniform from the stores and I can be his personal aide until cadet enrolment comes around."

Zack stared. "Kid, you are brilliant and quite possibly insane. Did you just refer to Sephiroth as 'Seph'?"

Cloud blushed. "Er-"

"No, no, no, don't you dare apologise," Zack cut him off, grinning widely for the fist time in days, "I love it! I'm gonna call him that in future! And I'm totally taking you up on the secretary thing. No-one looks twice at those guys really so you'll be inconspicuous. Well, not really inconspicuous if you're around Seph but people won't ask questions about where you came from. Come on; Kunsel will help me set you up right away!" he tossed a handful of gil onto the table and grabbed Cloud by the arm, barely giving the blond time to pick up his sword before all but carrying him out of the shop. "Trust me Spiky, if you can get Seph to calm down even a little every last SOLDIER will be backing you through cadet training. He's been terrifying everyone indiscriminately and no-one has a clue what to do about it."

* * *

><p>Getting drunk does not solve the underlying problem even if it can help you face facts. Cloud, being the hero he is despite years of Turk training, offers to help. And Zack, of course, is Zack. You gotta love Zack.<p> 


	20. Interference

**Interference**

Genesis stared blankly at the ceiling above his bed. He felt sick. He had never had any patience with ill people before -never having been seriously ill himself- but now he understood all too well why poor health was so awful.

He ached all over.

He felt nauseous.

He was cold despite being bundled up in thick pyjamas and several layers of blankets.

He couldn't think in a straight line for more than a few seconds.

Worst of all, he couldn't remember any relevant LOVELESS quotes and felt as weak as a kitten. Being sick was the absolute low point of his entire life and he never wanted it to happen ever again.

A small redhead with a spiky haircut wearing clothes like Cloud's was in charge of him, which meant he stayed in the Crimson General's room during the day and studied or practiced kata with a pair of jitte. When Genesis was thirsty the boy got him a drink. When he tossed and turned the boy came over and checked his temperature and made sure his pillows and blankets were comfortable and not knotted up. The boy -who Valentine addressed as Wolf- never spoke. Not a single word had passed his lips in six whole days. Genesis would have been bored to the point of going crazy except he didn't have the energy for that either.

Six times in every twenty-four hour period Valentine would check up on him and send tendrils of strange black energy into his body; she also sat with him throughout the night, never sleeping at all that he could see. He always felt better after she did the energy thing, so whatever the process was seemed to be doing something. Genesis just wished he could have avoided the constant, bone-deep exhaustion. It was like dying without ever getting a chance to actually be dead.

The Crimson General had noticed that Vincent's eyes went a solid, luminous gold when she was using the black energy, which was odd. Odder still was that her 'feel' -all SOLDIERs became vaguely aware of other living creatures after getting the Mako injections- changed as well. She went from feeling 'solid' -a sign of high Mako levels- with an unsettling edge to completely and irrefutably skin-crawling, which set off all of Genesis' military instincts. Experimentation could account for the uneasy tinge in her normal everyday signature, but the shift into pure creepiness was another animal altogether.

* * *

><p>The door opened and Valentine came in; it had to be that time of day again. Wolf left the room as soon as the incognito Turk entered it, presumably going for a meal. Genesis couldn't even look at food at the moment; he'd lost a lot of weight while he was stuck in bed being sick.<p>

The oddly-dressed woman knelt on the bed next to the SOLDIER first-class and _changed_, eyes and presence altering as the black tendrils leaked out of her fingertips and sank into his skin.

"You feel totally different when you do this, you know," the General croaked.

"_It doesn't surprise me in the slightest, little mage."_

Genesis froze. That was not Vincent's voice. It sounded like six or more voices speaking in unison, all of them much deeper than the Turk's pleasant contralto. "You are not Vincent," he rasped, very aware of being at this creature's mercy. "Who are you?"

"_I am Chaos, herald of OMEGA, little mage. _When the war of beasts brings about the world's end, The Goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar, She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting._ I serve the Goddess by my very existence." _

"You just quoted LOVELESS." Genesis was confused.

"_It is a prophesy, little mage, describing the end of the Planet. OMEGA is the last and greatest of the WEAPONS, the beasts of prophesy, and I shall go before him as he gathers the Lifestream to himself until the Goddess guides him to a new world."_

"You're the harbinger of Armageddon," the General concluded flatly. It was almost surreal. "Why are you walking around in Vincent Valentine's body?"

"_The little paradox is my vessel, my avatar and not by my choice or hers. The woman locked me within her, bound me to my paradox's flesh and will in a foolish attempt to prevent her from returning to the Lifestream. My paradox has however proved a satisfactory vessel and her chocobo tagalong is sufficiently amusing. The kitten also has promise, so I am content to wait within and assist my vessel in her chosen path and watch what disorder spirals out around her."_

"I suppose Cloud is the chocobo; does that mean Wolf is the kitten?" Genesis asked. The riddles were making his brain ache.

_Indeed. I am impressed: even half-cooked you can think,"_ Chaos said offhandedly. _"The Calamity is dying within you now little mage, but in a final attempt to linger on it has changed you in ways that will only later become apparent. Nothing that a human would consider disfiguring, I assure you; just a few optional extras you may come to enjoy."_

Genesis did not have the energy to either protest or ask for clarification. He wasn't going to slowly decompose into a puddle of toxic slime and the virus was dying. It was enough for the time being.

"_I'm astonished my avatar has not yet spoken to you of Deepground, little mage, considering how much of that information involves you in one way or another,"_ Chaos commented. Genesis just _knew_ it wasn't a casual observation. Any being that called itself 'Chaos' and had power over entropy would probably consider havoc of any kind entertaining. It was trying to get a rise out of him.

"Deepground?" he asked anyway. Chaos was the one in control of the situation and he didn't want the creature pissed off at him.

"_A secret detachment of SOLDIER with almost poisonously high Mako requirements,"_ Chaos replied, _"that answers directly to President Shinra and to him alone. It used to be a medical facility but after your birth it became the site of many deeply unethical experiments using you DNA as a base. They created many, ah, offspring, of which only three have survived: a female and two males. They are called Rosso, Weiss and Nero. The youngest was merged with some of the tainted Mako infused with my power before his birth, making him as much my own child as yours. As you, little mage, rose in rank within SOLDIER, the scientists became afraid of your spawn's power so they recently bound and contained them. Nero was the last child created; after him Deepground recruited from the battlefields of Wutai, stealing the injured and either experimenting on them or pressing them into service."_

"I, I have _kids_?" Genesis stuttered.

"_It would be more accurate to call them younger siblings, I suppose," _Chaos said conversationally. _"Rosso is fifteen, Weiss fourteen and Nero was thirteen yesterday. Like Sephiroth they are lab raised, but the incredibly high pressure all three are under is causing their mental state to deteriorate: Rosso is already showing signs of developing psychological pathology. Humans are incredibly fragile creatures, are they not, little mage?"_

"Where? Where are they?" Genesis begged, knowing he looked totally pathetic but not caring in the slightest. Those kids were his family. True, they were Vincent's, Angeal's and Sephiroth's as well since they were all related but they were his first and foremost.

"_Ah, time for me to leave. See you around, little mage,"_ Chaos said as the gold faded away and Valentine's eyes returned to their normal dull red.

Genesis _glared_ up at the impassive Turk, one hand fisted in her red cape. "Tell me about Deepground."

* * *

><p>Chaos just loves stirring up trouble, doesn't he? Who thinks he planned this when he made the offer? Anyone?<p>

As to nicknames, Genesis is a Materia specialist, hence Chaos calling him 'little mage'. Vincent is 'little vessel, avatar or paradox' interchangeably, Cloud is 'little chocobo' and Shelke/Wolf is 'little copy-cat' or 'little kitten'. Angeal is 'little paladin' -this is an insult; honour is so orderly and dull- Zack is 'little puppy' -naturally- and Sephiroth is 'little dragon'.

More amusingly, Reno is 'little pest' and Kunsel 'little spy'. Rude is 'little rock'... and Tseng is 'little mask'. Veld's nickname will turn up later.

To Chaos, everyone is 'little' except the WEAPONS and himself.


	21. Chaotic Iteration

**Chaotic Iteration**

Until very recently Sephiroth had been largely indifferent to the petty scheming and backstabbing that went on both in the boardroom and outside it between the department directors. Except on those rare occasions when their latest plot directly affected him or his SOLDIERs, the Silver General was happy to just let them be. Of course, if their scheme _did_ require something from him he did his best to shoot it down; Lazard was a great help there, as he was Director of SOLDIER and did not like seeing his people pushed around any more than Sephiroth did.

But now Sephiroth had had his eyes opened to the painful truth that even petty boardroom politics sent out ripples that affected all employees of ShinRa and even the most innocuous-seeming piece of trivia could come back and bite him later. Especially when the Science Department and their ludicrously huge budget were involved. This revelation had left the Silver General with a feeling of dissatisfaction that lingered unpleasantly in his chest and a vague desire to cut down those responsible for his discomfort.

He hadn't killed anyone as yet, but the temptation to do so was rising daily and he made it abundantly clear to those seeking his advice, approval or support that he was very much not in the mood for dealing with people who acted like toddlers squabbling over a favourite toy.

Not that he had any first-hand experience with small children, but they couldn't possibly be worse than Scarlet and Heidegger.

His simmering anger at Hojo and Hollander in particular for creating Project J and its successors and at President Shinra himself for financing their delusional egomania could not be channelled elsewhere with Genesis unavailable to spar and Angeal moping, so Sephiroth growled and brooded and grew steadily closer to boiling over as the days went by. He wanted to talk with Valentine, but she was busy ensuring Genesis wasn't going to die. Not that he begrudged the redhead his continued existence, but she was Sephiroth's mother and he'd barely spent a day with her yet.

* * *

><p>The Silver General wanted to pound someone into the ground and have a good long fight, but there just wasn't anyone in SOLDIER who could match him. He was starting to seriously consider going up to the Science Department and trashing the place on principle one afternoon when Zack's energetic pounding resonated through his office door for a few seconds before driving it open. Sephiroth raised a chilly eyebrow at the intruder.<p>

"What is it _now,_ lieutenant Fair?"

Zack took a deep breath and looked Sephiroth in the eye, grim determination resonating through his entire being. "The past week has been an absolute nightmare for everyone, especially the third-classes and the Security Department. They're all terrified you're going to kill them for some imagined mistake. The second-classes aren't much better and most of the first-classes are quietly taking missions a long way away from Midgar. It's got to the point that I'm the only one whose willing to even knock on your door at the moment. So, I've decided you need a buffer between you and whatever is setting you off. Lazard agrees with me and we've found you an aide to assist you for a while. Hopefully you'll manage to get your temper back under control in a few months so we can reassign him."

The Silver General was about to say something about how the Director could mind his own damn business when a familiar defiant-haired blond in a dark suit stepped out from behind the SOLDIER second-class. Sepiroth paused as he realised that his new aide was none other than the intriguing Cloud Strife.

"Hello, Seph," Cloud said cheekily. "Didn't you know that terrorising the hired help just makes them less helpful? They're too busy concentrating on staying alive to do as they're told."

The Silver General pierced the impertinent blond with an icy stare. Or at least he tried to; Cloud seemed oblivious to the atmosphere.

"Zack mentioned you were scaring even your toughest minions," Cloud went on blandly, face grave and concerned, "so I thought, why don't I infiltrate the company and make sure Sephiroth is okay? After all he seemed nice enough when I made breakfast for him and his friends last week and it would be kinda sad for him to get into trouble while my mentor's off nursing the ginger whinger back to health. So here I am. Zack helped me buy a suit and Lazard handed over ID cards no questions asked when my eager friend here said he had a possible way to keep you from going further off your rocker."

Zack had stuffed his fist into his mouth and started shaking helplessly with mirth when Cloud had referred to Genesis with the utterly disrespectful nickname of 'ginger whinger' and even Sephiroth himself felt his lips twitching at how the flamboyant redhead would react if he knew what he had just been called.

"Zack, go drag your brooding mentor out of his office and get him to pound some hand-to-hand into you in the simulation room, okay?" Cloud said, firmly shooing the still-giggling second-class out of Sephiroth's office. "I'll take it from here."

Angeal's protégé left. The Silver General stared hard at the charismatic and irreverent little menace who'd just waltzed into his office and taken over, not quite believing that the last five minutes had actually happened. He'd just been chewed out by Zack of all people then Cloud had thrown everything off kilter.

"Let me spell this out for you," the blond said coolly, his face split by a frankly disturbing grin. "I am not working for you so you can't fire or reassign me. I am not a part of SOLDIER as yet so I am not obliged to follow your orders. If you kill me Vincent will be seriously displeased, not to mention disappointed in your lack of self-control. I'm here because I'm worried about you. You've terrorised the entire building into running at half its usual speed and have nothing productive to do with your time. You need to blow off steam and relax a little. So you are going to prank the Science Department."

Sephiroth stared. He had _not_ just heard that. "Prank?"

Cloud smirked. "I am assigning you a tactical exercise, my dear General. You are to remove and conceal the Science Department's _entire_ stock of syringes without anyone realising you are the perpetrator. They must be without needles for a twenty-four hour period for the exercise to be deemed successful. You may recruit whoever you wish to assist you, but be aware that having allies means there is a greater chance of your scheme being discovered."

Almost against his will, the Silver General felt his mind processing the challenge. It was audacious, complex and would require exquisite timing and consummate skill. It was also utterly ridiculous and would send Hojo off in a tizzy as he tried to process what had been done to him. Sephiroth slowly leaned back in his chair and relaxed, eyes unfocussing as he began thinking up strategies and discarding ideas.

As he pondered the situation Cloud began swiftly shuffling through the paperwork on the General's desk and dividing it by subject or provenance. It was all internal to SOLDIER rather than the interdepartmental issues Lazard had to deal with, but it was still something of a variety including both the mundane and the peculiar.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked thoughtfully, "How does one go about preventing new shipments of hypodermics?"

"By hacking into the database and erasing the latest order," the blond said. "I recommend you find a Turk with a sense of humour and the ultimate poker face; I'll be too busy liaising to assist you. I also suggest finding a way into the Science Department so you can raid their stock while most of the personnel is off the clock and messing with the security cameras. Again, find a good Turk or hunt down the emergency access codes."

The Silver General smiled the smile he'd inherited from his mother, the one that Vincent Valentine had most recently worn just before utterly humiliating eight veteran Turks though a series of embarrassing accidents, incidents and coincidences. It was the smile that said her enemies would suffer unspeakable horrors while she laughed at their humiliation. On Sephiroth's face it looked no less scary than on its original owner's.

* * *

><p>Rude was a very efficient Turk. His naturally stoic demeanour led most people to overlook him, either automatically blanking him out or simply ignoring him since he rarely even attempted to interact with others. Most believed he lacked any kind of personality at all, but the truth was that Rude was rather shy. He didn't like talking or participating in group activities much, though he was an exceptional listener.<p>

Getting cornered by General Sephiroth in the elevator, dragged into Genesis' office and asked to assist in a 'surgical strike' was therefore rather surprising for the even-tempered Turk. Rude was even more surprised when he discovered the rather peculiar nature of the raid being planned, but found himself oddly disinclined to back out. Sephiroth's words, that no-one would _ever_ suspect him of being involved in something this ridiculous, coupled with the General's gleefully off-kilter smile, woke the part of Rude that gave him the potential to become a truly brilliant Turk. Yes, the plan was silly and bizarre and complex, but it was a challenge. A _real_ challenge with very real risks.

Behind his dark sunglasses Rude's eyes _gleamed_...

* * *

><p>Both the Security Department and SOLDIER breathed a collective sigh of relief as Sephiroth's volatile mood cooled and eventually evaporated completely over the next few days. All soon realised this change for the better was due to the Silver General's smartly dressed shadow, who ran errands, took messages and transferred paperwork with zealous efficiency. The boy looked about twelve, his spiky hair a golden beacon as he hurried back and forth, yet was unafraid to meet every last Mako-bright eye in the building including that of Sephiroth himself. Strife could calm the Silver General down with a hand on the older man's arm and a sly, sideways glance that seemed somehow to get Sephiroth to take a breath and back off a little, for which every last person in the building -with the possible exception of the board members- was thankful for: It was no longer necessary to live each day on high alert.<p>

The inexplicable rash of childish pranks, outlandish mixups and minor mysteries that plagued the company for almost a month thereafter was the subject of much talk and speculation among everyone in the building. However only the ever-observant second-class Kunsel noticed the suspiciously bland expressions of General Sephiroth and his delicate aide when Scarlet raved furiously about getting a shipment of licorice rather than wires, when Hojo almost had apoplexy when one of his Mako tanks was replaced by an identical tank full of green sugar syrup, when the Turks all went around in lurid floral shirts for a day and when Hollander's notes were somehow switched with biscuit recipes.

* * *

><p>Sephiroth was personally proudest of the sugar syrup incident; it had taken a lot of hard work to pull off and had been entirely his own idea from start to finish.<p>

* * *

><p>Because Cloud is an evil genius and Sephiroth needs to live a little. And because Rude is just that cool.<p> 


	22. Variable Magnitude

**Variable Magnitude**

Two weeks after Genesis vanished from Midgar with Vincent Valentine and one week after Cloud Strife became Sephiroth's aide, calming the silver-haired man down from borderline-homicidal to only mildly sadistic, Angeal received a PHS message from his absent redheaded friend.

_Come and join me in Junon soon; it's your turn to suffer._

This message was rather puzzling for the brunet first-class, but the confusion cleared up when later in the day he got a similar message from Vincent's number: _Come to Junon for treatment; pack for three weeks. Meet driver at city gate tomorrow. Valentine. _

Angeal stopped by Sephiroth's office to warn his friend that he would be out of the city getting treated for the rest of the month and was wished a warm 'good luck' by Cloud, who was working hard at the computer while the Silver General waded through the paperwork the blond had sorted for him. Sephiroth actually suggested the other General cadge a lift with one of the Gelnikas that were taking a company of the Security forces -as the ShinRa infantry were officially called- out to Junon for field exercises and water training the next morning. Not seeing any reason not to take advantage, Angeal organised permission, packed up and just before dawn the next day was waved off by a determinedly cheerful Zack. The massive cargo plane lifted off with one hundred regular infantry plus officers on board, all rather intimidated by the presence of the Dark General who had added himself to the passenger lift at the last moment.

* * *

><p>To block out the speculative whispering of the Security Forces -who clearly hadn't the faintest idea of how sensitive a SOLDIER's hearing actually was- Angeal immersed himself in reading the information he'd retrieved off the infonet regarding his newly discovered father Grimoire and the Valentine family in general. The Valentines turned out to be an old and distinguished wealthy family that had made their fortune investing in the first mythril mines and then further enriched themselves through land ownership and property rental. The Valentines owned land and housing in Kalm, Junon, Rocket town, Cosmo Canyon, Icicle inn and even Angeal's home town of Banora. Their family seat was just outside of Junon, which all things considered was probably where he was going now.<p>

In addition to the rather dry facts Angeal had dug up evidence in the form of newspaper articles describing the incident that occurred when Vincent broke the bank in Golden Saucer -it _was_ rather entertaining- another celebrating the Valentine family's renewed involvement in chocobo breeding for the racing circuit and a third, more intriguing entry stating that a good chunk of the family's money was being invested in a Cosmo Canyon alternative energy project.

Angeal wasn't sure why Vincent could possibly be interested in windmills and hydroelectricity when Mako generators provided all the power one could possibly need, but it had to be for a good reason. That much money wouldn't change hands on a whim, especially not when the investor was a Turk, former or otherwise. Further investigation of tax printouts showed that Valentine was also pouring money into a wildlife foundation and was providing funds so that a massive chunk of uninhabited grassland -also Valentine owned- could be regularly cleared of monsters for the benefit of wild grazers. A quick email to Cloud asking for more information on the subject yielded a few articles on how the rising monster populations were depleting ecosystems across the planet through overpredation. Cloud had added a footnote stating that this particular scheme was entirely his own, paid for by his percentage of the Golden Saucer winnings. That meant that it was the young blond -who looked rather like both Lazard and Rufus Shinra now that he thought about it- who was a wildlife nut rather than Vincent.

The land itself bordered the Chocobo Farm, which suggested that Choco Billy was profiting in some way as well. Angeal had wondered why there were well-paid monthly requests to clear out monsters from the Grasslands area despite there never being anything particularly large or dangerous out there.

* * *

><p>On reaching Junon Angeal politely thanked the unit commander for his forbearance -it wasn't like the man had had a choice about letting the General come along for the ride- and made his way over to the massive, multi-layered city ShinRa had built into the cliffs. Junon had been the corporation's main base on the Eastern Continent before the construction of Midgar and was the site of Scarlet's soon-to-be-completed Mako cannon. He was just entering the city's upper gate when he was accosted by a polite and nervous young man with a Corel accent wearing a deep red uniform.<p>

"General Hewley?" He asked, glancing from Angeal's glowing Mako eyes to the Buster sword strapped to his back.

"I am, yes. Why do you ask?"

"Mr Valentine sent a car to take you to the estate, which is about an hour south-east of Junon by road," the man said. "I'm the driver; the vehicle is this way, sir."

The Dark General easily concealed his surprise at Vincent being referred to as 'Mr' Valentine; either the former Turk had not bothered to enlighten her staff of the truth of her gender or the driver had orders not to reveal the information in public. The young man -who was probably about three years younger than Angeal himself- led the way to the car, opened the boot so the General could safely stow his massive blade then drove away from the city as soon as Angeal was settled comfortably in the back seat.

* * *

><p>On arriving at the broad, three-storey stone mansion at the edge of the forests that reminded Angeal of the type of building commonly found at the resort town of Icicle Inn, the General was welcomed inside by an older woman in a dark red dress reminiscent of the driver's own uniform and led upstairs. The woman -who introduced herself as the housekeeper- ushered Angeal into a cosy sitting-room where he immediately saw Genesis lounging in an armchair near the windows, face pale and haggard like he'd gone six rounds against a Midgar zolom all on his own.<p>

"Genesis?" Angeal blurted out, concerned, as he walked over to take a seat opposite his lifelong friend. "Are you alright?"

The Crimson General snorted and rolled his eyes. "No, of course not. Do I _look_ alright? However, according to dear Valentine I am however no longer at risk of degradation, which is a consolation. I would hate to have suffered like this for nothing. Oh, and I can actually eat now rather than be forced to rely on intravenous drips twice a day."

"It was that bad?" the Dark General inquired concernedly.

Genesis grimaced. "Worse; I never want to be sick like that ever again. I didn't even have the energy to be _bored_ until yesterday Angeal!"

"What's the estate like?" Angeal tried a less controversial subject.

"No idea," Genesis grumbled, fiddling with the blanket swaddling his lower body under a crimson dressing gown. "This is the first time in two weeks I've been strong enough to leave the bedroom under my own power. The weakness is crippling, Angeal: I could barely _speak_ without exhausting myself most days, let alone sit up. Vincent says that my ability to stagger around a few rooms already without my legs giving out shows the Mako in my system is helping me bounce back quickly, but she won't let me go back to Midgar until I can match her in a proper fight for at least twenty minutes."

"Match, not defeat?" the Dark General inquired with a teasing smile. I was good to see Genesis again and the griping was actually a good sign.

The redhead growled. "She's a sharpshooter and knife-fighter with a heavy focus on speed and accuracy. I'm a Materia user who wields a sword because I can channel magic through it and in combat I focus on power. I challenged her to a spar before the treatment started -the very moment I got here in fact- and she just slid inside my reach and put a switchblade to my carotid before I could even charge up a spell. Not even _Sephiroth's_ that fast."

"What's the treatment like?"

Genesis paused thoughtfully. "You understand the principle of chemotherapy for cancer patients?"

"Poisoning the cancer cells with something that they are more sensitive to than healthy cells, right?"

"Yes. It feels like that sounds. I am never going to be impatient with sick people ever again."

"Angeal," said a voice across the room. Both Generals swiftly looked over at Vincent, who had somehow entered the room without alerting them during their conversation.

"Does he have to start now?" the Crimson General asked plaintively. "I was hoping for a decent conversation; _nobody_ here can hold up their end of a debate except you and you _refuse_ to do so for more than ten minutes. It's _boring_."

"Yes he does, but if Angeal doesn't mind he can stay here for the next few hours; it will take that long for his body to begin responding to the treatment," the former Turk conceded. "But as soon as he starts feeling weak you _must_ call me so I can get him into bed. The virus is completely integrated into his DNA so the risk of complications is much higher."

"Complications?" Angeal repeated nervously.

Vincent shrugged, her tattered red cape fluttering. "Hallucinations, convulsions, physical mutations, brain damage and death in that order if not properly supervised. You'll need to stay still, warm and hydrated so as to conserve as much energy as possible to get through treatment." She paused. "I must warn you that there is a fairly high chance of you developing a physical limit break while fighting off JENOVA." _like mine_ went unsaid.

"Will I?" Genesis asked.

"No; the 'optional extras' mentioned last week however are all but guaranteed," the former Turk said tiredly. "You will however be pleased to know that your ability to father children has not been affected in the slightest and that said children will not be affected by the virus or mutations in any way whatsoever. Angeal, might I begin?"

The brunet SOLDIER nodded as Genesis shrugged negligently, hiding his relief.

"Very well then," Vincent said as Angeal leaned forward to run his hand down his Buster sword which he had laid on the coffee table. The Dark General settled back in his chair as the oddly dressed woman he was entrusting his life, future and honour to approached him, eyes glowing gold from edge to edge while black power danced around her fingertips.

* * *

><p>Angeal's turn for treatment. Genesis is recovering and making a nuisance of himself. Not that that's a <em>surprise<em>...


	23. Periodic Orbits

I can't reply to my newer reviews through messaging as the site won't let me, so I'm doing it here:

wanderingmusician: thanks, that stuff is more important than you'd think...

Road and Tyki: Cloud has no idea, but Angeal is guessing, Vincent knows and Lazard is suspicious.

Kitsune Onna1: Seph will indeed have a terrible time, but by then Vincent will be better at doing it.

Khelc-sul Renai: Thank-you! It's really encouraging to get this kind of review.

Lemrinth: Dark red is the official Valentine colour scheme. It's traditional as it matches the hereditary Valentine eyes.

Now, on with the story!

**Periodic Orbits**

Five days after Angeal hitched a lift to Junon with the infantry Genesis breezed back into Midgar looking as though he'd come back from a three-week bender. Despite his slightly thinner and paler features the Crimson General was still as melodramatic and flamboyant as ever, sniping at Sephiroth in an attempt to get a rise out of the younger General and quoting LOVELESS to all and sundry. He was also intrigued by the anonymous prankster who was terrorising the board of directors; on the day the Crimson General returned Lazard's office was painted in a tasteful shade of pink with yellow and green pastel butterflies decorating the ceiling. There was even a betting pool in SOLDIER on who the culprit -or culprits- could be and a lot of gil riding on the outcome. Genesis tracked down Angeal's puppy as soon as Lazard had given him the bare bones of what had been going on in his absence and had the second-class give him the particulars of _everything_ that had occurred while he was away.

Zack obligingly recounted every last prank, which took a while as he kept having to stop because Genesis was laughing so hard at the descriptions and a few other passing firsts and a second joined in to add bits and pieces Zack missed.

"I think it's the Turks," Zack said at the end of the recital. "The flowery Mideel shirts were just to throw us all off; only a Turk could have made all of Hojo's needles disappear for the day and do the sugar syrup stunt. Unless you think it's one of the scientists?"

"No, it can't be a scientist, but why would a Turk _want_ to do all that stuff?" a first-class asked. "And did you see Veld's face on the day of the Shirt Incident? No way is it a Turk conspiracy. I'd have said it was the scruffy redhead Turk except he has alibis. _Valid _alibis."

"How's Sephiroth been dealing with the blatant anarchy and sabotage?" Genesis asked. He personally thought this had something to do with Vincent's cute blond protégé; he'd only met the boy the once over breakfast, but the stories had indicated the presence of the kind of sense of humour that would enjoy switching Scarlet's wire shipments for string liquorice.

"He's not acting like he'd stab you for breathing too loudly anymore, thank Gaia," the first-class said. "Lazard found him an aide who runs errands and organises the paperwork. The kid's totally fearless; looks all delicate and cuddly right until he points a weapon at you and his eyes freeze over."

"What?" Zack blurted out, looking panicked. "Spiky threatened someone? What did they do? Why didn't anyone tell me about it earlier?"

"Relax," the first-class -Genesis thought his name was Yuri Antonin- chuckled. "It happened yesterday while you were out on those training missions. One of the upper level bureaucrats in the Space Exploration Department decided -very stupidly considering whose aide the kid is- that he wanted the blond as a bedwarmer, cornered him in the lower offices and tried to pressure him. According to the secretary on duty Strife pulled a gun out of nowhere and shoved it in the moron's groin, telling him to back off or lose his bits."

Genesis eyes lit up. "Strife? Chocobo haircut, pretty face, moves like a hunting cat on the prowl?"

"You know him sir?" Antonin asked.

Genesis grinned. "_The wind sails over the water's surface; Quietly, but surely._ Strife wants to join SOLDIER; he'll be signing up in the autumn provided the Turks don't abduct him before then."

"Shit, sir," Antonin said, "Strife'll make a fantastic SOLDIER. He's not afraid of any of us; hell, not even General Sephiroth scares him."

"What happened to the bureaucrat harassing him?" Zack inquired, voice dangerously light and even. Genesis hadn't known Angeal's puppy had it in him to sound that scary.

Antonin grinned. "Well, he almost pissed himself when Strife pulled the gun on him and legged it. Then the kid tried to file a sexual harassment charge but the General came to see what was holding him up and found out what had happened." he paused dramatically. "He was so pissed, and I mean really, really angry. Not like the latent anger back before Strife showed up but burning, focused rage. The Turks had to scramble to get the guy out of the building and shipped off to Rocket town so Sephiroth couldn't dismember him for his insolence. The Space Exploration Department was panicking 'cause the Silver General was storming around all four of their floors with Masamune drawn looking for someone to kill and it took Strife _hours_ to calm him down even after Palmer promised to fire the moron and get him blacklisted on the company register." Antonin chuckled evilly. "General Sephiroth really, really wanted to get a helicopter up to Rocket town and chop the guy into itty bitty pieces. Strife did talk him out of it but if the General ever sees that moron again I wouldn't bet on his chances."

"What is it with Strife and General Sephiroth anyway?" a second-class asked. "That's kinda overkill for a sexual harassment charge."

"Sounds rather like what Angeal would have done if another SOLDIER had tried something similar with Zack here," Genesis said casually, "and Cetra knows Sephiroth's the possessive type. If the kid's his aide and as good as he seems then there's no way he'll let any kind of threat near the boy if he can help it. Us SOLDIERs can take care of ourselves but Strife's not augmented." The Crimson General paused thoughtfully. "Anyone willing to bet against Sephiroth taking Strife on as his student if the blond makes it into SOLDIER?"

"No way; I'm not that gullible, sir," Antonin responded with a grin. "He's already been tutoring Strife with swords in the simulation room. I've watched: the kid's got talent to burn."

"Then us SOLDIERs will just have to keep the Turks away until Strife passes the exams," Genesis announced. "We can't have Sephiroth's new protégé wearing a blue suit now can we?"

* * *

><p>As soon as Genesis had cleared up his paperwork backlog he hunted down Sephiroth for a spar. The Silver General was more relaxed than the redhead had ever seen him before -which was suspicious in itself- and agreed immediately, pushing his own paperwork to one side and striding out of his office, Cloud at his heels in a smart ShinRa suit.<p>

Sephiroth insisted on two 'warm-up' fights before going all-out: one pure swordplay and one with just magic and hand-to-hand. Genesis agreed readily enough and the sparring session began, Zack standing well out of the way with Cloud and acting as referee while a large number of SOLDIERs of all three ranks gravitated to the observation room to watch. The Silver General won the sword fight in under ten minutes but the Materia brawl dragged on for ages, the advantage swinging back and forth between the two generals until Genesis finally clipped Sephiroth with a Stop spell and pinned him to the ground.

"So, one-all," Cloud said lightly, dropping down to bring both Generals ethers and somas to get them back up to fighting strength for the final match. The Crimson General's sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the green Materia in the boy's fist. "Either of you need a Cure?"

"Genesis has heavy bruising on his leg and a twisted ankle," Sephiroth said promptly, "and I have burns on both arms."

Cloud cast a spell that just _had_ to come form a mastered Full Cure. It also felt more powerful than any Cure spell he'd ever felt before. "Where'd you buy that Full Cure Materia, Strife?" Genesis asked.

The blond looked puzzled. "Um, this is a normal Restore Materia, General. Naturally formed and everything. I've never even heard of a 'Full Cure' before."

The Crimson General's eyes widened. "_Natural_ Materia? How many natural Materia do you have exactly, Strife?"

The boy looked puzzled. "All my Materia are natural; manufactured ones really don't compare since they only do one spell apiece. As for numbers, um, twenty-nine I think."

There was a stunned silence in the simulation room.

"You have on your person _twenty-nine_ different naturally formed Materia," Genesis repeated incredulously. Even Sephiroth was staring now.

"Well, I've got a few repeats of the more useful ones and a couple of baby ones I didn't count from when I mastered the others, but yeah," Cloud confirmed uncertainly. "Why, is that a lot?"

"After this fight is over you are going to show me _everything_ you can do with your Materia," the Crimson General breathed, a slightly fanatical gleam glinting in his Mako-blue eyes. "Come on Sephiroth; let's get this show on the road!"

* * *

><p>Genesis returns, ready to take on the planet and rescue siblings in distress.<p>

Cloud doesn't realise how good he is with magic because Vincent just insists he be able to do everything with anything. He also doesn't know how rare natural Materia are generally considered to be; they take more effort to level up than ShinRa manufactured ones and cost slightly more when new. The truth is that they're only rare in Midgar because ShinRa produce so many manufactured ones for SOLDIER use that natural ones don't sell. Out in less civilised areas natural Materia is easy to buy. Or steal, as is often the case with Cloud.


	24. Relative Scale

As the last chapter ended with a cliffhanger, here's the rest of it.

**Relative Scale**

The spar between Genesis and Sephiroth swiftly grew into an all-out battle, forcing Zack and Cloud to take cover behind a Wall cast by the second-classes manufactured Wall Materia. Cloud also cast a Reflect on both of them for extra security, watching the match with wide-eyed awe. _This_ was what the blond aspired to become, to grow into a person able to fight on the same level as the three Generals.

As the battle escalated further to the point that the Training Room started to take damage Cloud quickly equipped one of his long knives with a linked Time and All, slipped a linked Final Attack and Restore into his armlet and dived into the fray to halt the fight. The two Generals' defences held up against the first Stop casting, but the All Materia was level four and both were eventually frozen in place by the status effect.

"I apologise for interrupting, but you're starting to damage the simulation room," Cloud said politely, pointing to the crackling areas of the hologram with the knives held firmly in each hand. "If you really want to try and kill each-other you'll have to do it outside. Preferably out of the city, if Genesis is going to use Flare that recklessly." Neither General actually replied, both having been completely immobilised by the barrage of Stop spells. Cloud cast a DeSpell with his Destruct Materia then swiftly backed up as both SOLDIERs turned to eye him speculatively.

"Knives, Strife?" Sephiroth asked, waving his free hand at the slim blades the blond wielded. Cloud shrugged, sliding the weapons back into their hidden sheaths.

"I was too small for a sword when I started training and my instructor couldn't teach me how to use one anyway," he explained, not mentioning Vincent while in public.

"Well, I say we call the fight a draw and postpone the rematch until another day," Genesis decided. "I for one want to see how well Strife performs with his Materia; we can relocate to one of the other training rooms for that." That said, the Crimson General gripped the blond's shoulder and steered him out of the Simulation Room and towards the lift.

* * *

><p>The normal training rooms were located on the next floor down and were open at all hours to all SOLDIERs without needing to be booked beforehand. As Genesis set up targets with Sephiroth, Cloud set about retrieving all his Materia from their various hidden pockets and weapons. As he was removing the Poison from his stiletto Zack shuffled over to him:<p>

"I can't _believe_ you interfered in their fight!" the spiky-haired brunet hissed. "You could have been killed! If you wanted them to stop you should have asked me to do it; at least I'm augmented!"

Cloud shrugged. "I have phoenix down in my inventory and had a Final Attack linked to a Revive in my armlet. Even if they had killed me it wouldn't have been permanent."

The energetic second-classes jaw dropped. "You- you-" he gibbered, "you _planned_ on getting killed?"

"Accidents happen in fights," Cloud said simply as both Sephiroth and Genesis turned to stare at him in horror, proving they had indeed been listening in. "It wouldn't have been the first time and neither General is more dangerous to me than Vincent is or can become when pushed too far. Or even half as scary, to be honest. Neither Sephiroth nor Genesis would ever consider skinning me alive, for instance." Hellmasker _had_ considered it once, out loud.

"I don't want to know," Zack said flatly, clapping his hands over his ears. "I'm not listening!"

Sephiroth seemed to find his acceptance and fearlessness reassuring, while Genesis looked like he had considered acting offended but thought better of it. "The targets are set up; now let's see what you've got, blondie!" the Crimson General said gleefully, changing the subject as he strode over to the table at the end of the room nearest the door where Cloud and Zack were standing. "Empty your pockets, kid!"

A short while later the egg-box-like tabletop was full of little orbs: thirty-seven in total, eleven of which were mastered and seven of which were completely unused. Genesis claimed he had never seen so many high-level Materia in one place before, natural or otherwise, which was saying something. There were seventeen green magic Materia, eleven blue support Materia, three yellow command Materia, five purple independent Materia and one red summon: Odin. Two of the purples were pristine, as were two of the blues and three of the greens.

"I generally swap the baby ones with Vincent when we master a Materia and it spawns," Cloud explained, slightly worried by the fixed stares of the three SOLDIERs. "That's how I got the Destruct, Contain, Gravity and one of the Added Effects. The rest are all either bought or found." Or stolen, but the blond didn't feel the need to mention that.

"You use all of these?" Sephiroth asked, brow furrowing slightly. "Regularly?"

Cloud smiled. "I have a gun, six knives and a sword, all of which can be equipped and all of which can be used in combinations with each-other. I keep all of them equipped at all times, the same as my armlet." Genesis had found the dragon armlet fascinating and insisted on testing its resistance to the elements. "I usually shuffle the Materia around regularly so I can try out new combinations and don't get stuck in a particular pattern. Predictability kills." the blond paused, eyeing his stash. He really did have a few too many to properly use them all. "I really don't need the Throw though; Zack? Do you want it?"

Zack stared at the little yellow sphere Cloud was holding out, then at Cloud himself. "You're just _giving_ me that?" he squeaked.

Cloud pinked. "It didn't cost me anything and I can't really use it in a fight," he babbled, wondering what the problem was. "Don't you want it?"

The second-class lunged forward in a blur and snatched the Materia. "Hell yes! This is so cool! Thanks Spiky!" He ruffled the blond's hair, making it even messier than usual.

"Don't I get one?" Genesis pouted. Cloud gamely through a blue All at the redheaded General; ShinRa couldn't reliably replicate those, so the company didn't even try.

Cloud paused. "Seph? Would you like one?" The Silver General stepped a little closer to the table and picked out a green Heal.

"Thank-you Cloud," he said sincerely, a small smile catching the corners of his mouth. "Now let us get on with what we came down here for: seeing you cast with your Materia. Start with the lowest level spells and work your way up."

* * *

><p>Two hours later Cloud had cast everything he could think of -except the Chocobo Lure, Enemy Away and Odin that is- in every conceivable combination his weapons and armlet allowed him to. He had ended up drinking four turbo-ethers to replenish his MP and by the end his three-SOLDIER audience seemed slightly stunned by what he'd managed to cast. True, the Tornado <em>was<em> pretty amazing, but most of the rest of his spells had been fairly standard.

"How can you cast that quickly?" Genesis asked after a pause.

"Er, practice?" Cloud offered. He hadn't thought he'd been particularly fast; Vincent was faster. "I'm not all that strong so I work really hard on building my speed. Having natural Materia helps though, I think. I've used manufactured ones once or twice and they feel, well, _clunky_ in comparison. Less responsive."

"Really?" Zack promptly tried out his new Throw Materia on the almost-disintegrated targets. "Hey, you're right! This is way easier to use!"

"I think you could take the SOLDIER exam without passing through the the eight weeks of cadet training at all if Vincent taught you to be this proficient in all areas," Sephiroth mused. "_I_ certainly never did cadet training and neither do most of the older recruits, so there's plenty of precedent for admitting competent applicants directly. You know the material and are physically fit enough to meet the SOLDIER standard, so why not?"

"Er, can that discussion wait until I'm actually old enough to join?" Cloud requested quietly as he efficiently re-equipped his weapons and armlet and tidied away his remaining loose Materia. He didn't like showing off, or even the idea of showing off really. If you were capable you did a good job without flaunting your ability; Vincent had taught him that. The former Turk firmly believed that it was better to be discreet, underestimated and under-appreciated than flashy and have to live up to the ridiculously high standards of people who didn't even understand what it was you did.

Perhaps Kunsel and Angeal would like some of his baby Materia; what was the point of having extras if you couldn't share them with your friends?

"Spiky, you really _are_ that good," Zack said earnestly. "Certainly way better than me with Materia and probably better than Angeal; he doesn't use them much. If Sephiroth thinks you can make SOLDIER right off the bat then you should definitely try, right Genesis?"

"Most definitely," the Crimson General agreed with an easy smile. "And if Sephiroth doesn't take you on as his student as soon as you make the program then I certainly will. _There is no hate, only joy: For you are beloved by the Goddess, Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds._"

The Silver General's eyes narrowed. "Strife, I will recommend you to Director Lazard and you _will_ pass the exam in September."

Cloud picked up on the clearly unspoken _or else_. "Fine, fine. I'll give it a shot. I'll definitely need to train more between now and then, though."

"I'll allot you more free time to go hunting in the slums," Sephiroth said promptly, his expression conveying subtle pleasure at Cloud's agreement, however disrespectful it had been. "I don't need you in the office all day anyway and most people now know better than to come and badger me in person."

"Very well then," the blond capitulated, feeling warm inside. Sephiroth definitely cared if he was willing to push this. His goal of becoming friends with the forbidding General was looking more achievable by the day and he was getting a few more friends on the side as well.

* * *

><p>Cloud gets to show off a bit and is offered a head start into the SOLDIER program. The idea of teenage-Sephiroth in cadet training just does not work, so I refuse to believe he ever did it. Cloud's genuinely modest and generous nature gets to shine for a bit and Genesis and Sephiroth get something <em>else<em> to fight over. As if they weren't competitive enough.

Thanks to Celydon for the truly encouraging review and to Kitsune Onna1 for her cute comments. No, nobody suspects Sephiroth at all...


	25. Duality

**Duality**

In early June Angeal returned to Midgar looking tired but more at peace with himself than he'd been in over a month. The Dark General immediately dragged Zack to the Simulation room for a training exercise to check that the second-class hadn't been slacking off while his mentor was away.

Sephiroth knew that Angeal's return meant that it would soon be his turn to go for treatment, so he attacked his paperwork with renewed vigour and let Cloud out early to hunt monsters under the Plate. The petit blond had won himself a permanent place in the Silver General's heart with his cheerful fearlessness and gentle irreverence; Angeal, Genesis, Zack and Rude were Sephiroth's friends, but Cloud was by far his best friend. At times -like when they were brainstorming with Rude for new prank ideas- Sephiroth wondered if this was what it was like to have a younger brother.

The Silver General finished up early and went home to his spacious apartment in Sector One, where all of the SOLDIERs, Turks and other valuable ShinRa employees were offered low-cost housing by the company. Letting himself in and locking the door behind him, Sephiroth turned around to see Valentine waiting for him on the couch. Mere moments later his mother blurred over to him and hugged him close.

"My Sephiroth," she murmured into his hair. Sephiroth hugged her back just as hard, silently glad that she was enhanced enough for him not to need to watch his strength. He'd missed her terribly despite barely knowing her and while Cloud had done wonders in staving off his loneliness it hadn't been quite the same.

"Book a month off, my silver dragon," his mother told him when she eventually let go of him. "I'm taking you on a camping trip before I put you through the necessary medical hell. You've never had a proper holiday before so that state of affairs needs remedying first."

"Can Cloud come?" Sephiroth asked. His request had nothing to do with the way Genesis watched his chocobo-crested aide. Nothing at all. Cloud just happened to be his best friend and Valentine's apprentice, so a joint holiday would be more fun. Cloud could introduce him to more amusing and relaxing ways to pass the time, like when he'd shown Sephiroth what happened when you added uncooked popcorn to the heating generators in the Urban Development Department. That had been _hilarious_...

"Of course, if that's what you want," Valentine said promptly. "It's your holiday after all, my hatchling." Sephiroth didn't even try to stop the happy smile curving his lips. A whole _month_ with his mother and Cloud with no work in sight sounded wonderful.

* * *

><p>A week into their camping trip Sephiroth was wearing the standard first-class SOLDIER jumper and a pair of touch canvas trousers tucked into calf boots and lying sprawled across the grass with his hair in a braid, totally unarmed and staring at the stars. Next to him lay Cloud, dressed in his habitual SOLDIER-style green, pointing out the various constellations in the night sky above them and telling the strangely wonderful stories and legends connected to them. Sephiroth had never been taught anything that wasn't strictly practical while in Hojo's labs, which was part of why he clashed with Genesis so often. The redhead was too much of a poet and art-lover to <em>not<em> clash with someone raised to be utterly pragmatic. Hearing the old myths in Cloud's high, musical voice however gave him an increased insight into the contradictory and impulsive nature of the human heart; those stories told of how it was impossible to control anything other than yourself, and to even attempt it was folly. They also spoke of the dangers of acting out of rage or thoughtless passion and the importance of honesty.

Valentine had taken him and Cloud out to the Chocobo Farm, then led them out into the hills and set up camp in the middle of nowhere with a half-grown gold chocobo called Sunshine. Sephiroth had then been introduced to the wonders of hunting you own food -with one of his mother's rifles since Cloud insisted that swords were _not_ hunting tools- cooking over a camp fire, climbing trees, messing about in rivers and training chocobos for racing. Seeing Cloud fuss over a leggy bird with his exact same hairstyle had been supremely entertaining in a warm and fuzzy kind of way; the gold chocobo seemed convinced that the young teen was its long-lost parent, a fact that the blond was quick to exploit in order to speed up Sunshine's training. Sephiroth was also adopted by the bright bird and after a few false starts the Silver General was able to get the bird to do what he wanted and care for its needs without much fuss.

The first thing his mother had done after they set up camp was call up the metamorphosis-type limit break Sephiroth recognised from the notes on the V disk he'd read over a month ago as being the Galian Beast. It looked like a bipedal behemoth without the spikes on the tail and had a gleam in its eye that indicated greater intelligence than behemoths usually commanded. He had made an effort not to automatically threaten the beast and been -dubiously- rewarded when the creature had gently knocked him over and started grooming him. Valentine had resurfaced five minutes later, by which point Sephiroth's face and upper body were sticky from saliva and red from Galian Beast's rough tongue.

Valentine's acute embarrassment at the situation tempered the Silver General's own confused mortification and when Cloud got over his silent hysterics the blond shakily led Sephiroth over to a nearby spring to wash off. During the bath Cloud explained that Galian Beast had recognised Sephiroth as its -her?- cub, so it wouldn't attack him if it emerged in a fight. Well, unless the General challenged it, but that was not something he was planning on doing. The behemoth-like creature was a part of his mother so he would never attack it out of hand.

Since then however Sephiroth had taken to wearing the SOLDIER jumper; he did not want to get licked like that again.

* * *

><p>When Sephiroth woke at dawn, having dozed off out in the open, Valentine was standing over him.<p>

"I put Cloud to bed; he would have caught a chill sleeping out here, even if it is summer," she said quietly. "I need to start your treatment soon, so I thought I should introduce you to my... tenant beforehand."

"Tenant?" Sephiroth repeated, resettling himself into a sitting position. This sounded ominous.

"When your birth-mother Lucretia Crescent experimented on me with tainted Mako in am attempt to save my life, she infused me with one of the Guardian Spirits of the Planet. Specifically Chaos, herald of the WEAPON OMEGA, also known as 'he who will purge the Lifestream of impurity' and the 'harbinger of the ultimate fate'," Valentine said flatly, dropping down opposite her son and staring at her gold-gauntleted left hand. "He is something akin to a summon, is Chaos, but fully independent of my will once released. I can prevent him from emerging or call him back within myself, but beyond that his actions are no more under my control than yours are. I can ask, but not force. He is his own." She paused. "The power to overcome the JENOVA virus is his and he offered to destroy it within you and the other two Generals. He calls it 'the Calamity' which leads me to suspect JENOVA may be part of the impurity he is supposed to purge."

Sephiroth carefully went over his mother's words in his mind. She seemed to be expecting fear or rejection, much like he himself often did when his actions forced other SOLDIERs to notice how far above their level he was. "Can I meet him?" the silver-haired General asked. "You are still my mother Valentine; nothing will ever change that nor would I want that to change."

Valentine's mouth twitched up into a slight smile, then her eyes filled with luminous gold as her body and clothing writhed and changed.

"_Greetings, little dragon. I see you are very much you mother the paradox's child despite the Calamity infesting you."_

"Chaos," Sephiroth said with a polite nod. "What are my chances of surviving this?"

The being smiled as the red wrappings around its face fluttered. _"Survival is all but guaranteed, little dragon; your body will however be forever changed. Degradation was never a risk for you as you are unable to imprint yourself on others, so the changes the little paladin faced will never trouble you. The Calamity is however deeply entrenched in both flesh and bone, so the pain may briefly drive you mad. You are too much your mother's child for that state to be permanent, but you may find the evolution you undergo as distressing as my vessel once did. You will see little of you mother and much of me in the next two weeks, little dragon: the battle will be long and hard before we prevail." _

* * *

><p>Seph goes camping with Cloud and his mother, meets Galian Beast and learns how to care for chocobos. Oh, and is introduced to Chaos.<p>

As with all family holidays these are embarrassing and blackmail-worthy moments, but that's normal._  
><em>


	26. Quantum Superposition

**Quantum Superposition**

Sephiroth opened his eyes and shut them again hastily. It was much too bright out there. Natural light rather than infirmary or laboratory fluorescents, but still a bit too much for his sensitive retinas. Eyes firmly closed, the Silver General turned his attention to his other senses.

He could smell... a hint of sickly-sweet putrefaction, ozone and volcanic ash; Chaos' own peculiar combination, overlaid on Valentine's normal gunpowder, weapon oil, steel and feral femininity. That last scent in the cocktail reminded Sephiroth of the plains hunting cat he'd seen in a zoo once. Cloud was nearby, or had been: Steel, early adolescent musk, a touch of spring rain and a hint of gunpowder with a strong overlay of chocobo and greens. The blond had probably been tending to the bird non-stop since Sephiroth's treatment started, what with him being out of commission and Chaos absorbed in keeping him alive. The tent around him smelt of sweat and sickness -his own- threaded with the tang of Mako and overlaid with green soap.

As for sounds, there was the rustle of wind against the tent sides, the soft warks and encouraging murmurs coming from outside that suggested Cloud was teaching the leggy gold chocobo something and distant birdsong, all interwoven with the faint hissing of grass and swishing of leaves.

And right beside him was a slow, steady heartbeat and breathing so soft he' almost missed it. Might very well have missed it were it not for the deeply unsettling 'presence' he could feel through his Mako-enhanced life-sense. It was Chaos, and felt less disturbing than it had at the beginning of the treatment; had he grown accustomed or was it related to the procedure Chaos had used to neutralise JENOVA?

Sephiroth tensed his muscles in preparation for motion and promptly groaned and went limp. He ached _everywhere_, from bones to hair all the way through muscle, organs and skin. It was horribly painful but still better than how he last remembered feeling: before the black abyss in his memory he recalled feeling as though his bone marrow had been replaced with hot lead.

"_Welcome back, little dragon,"_ came the weird chorus that was Chaos' voice.

"How long?" Sephiroth rasped. He needed a drink but moving was right out at the moment. Even talking was a challenge. There was movement in the air near his face and the mouth of an open water bottle was held to his lips. He swallowed appreciatively.

"_You became delirious three days in and catatonic two days later. Treatment began eleven days ago and finished two days ago; now you just need to get better and use what time remains of your holiday to adapt to your new physiology."_

"New physiology?" Sephiroth repeated. 'Minor changes' had been mentioned, not a whole new body.

"_The Calamity contains pieces of DNA scavenged from many other species it considered useful and Hojo added more because it suited him,"_ Chaos explained patiently, _"which, when exposed to different types of Mako, causes specific mutations to surface. Genesis and Angeal were Banora bred; the Lifestream out there favours hippogriffs as they are the most intelligent monster species. You were born and raised in Nibelheim, which favours wolves and dragons. Mostly dragon in your case, but were the little chocobo to enter SOLDIER he would likely favour wolf. Medical-grade Mako is difficult to refine, so the injections only come from four places, each of which have special and expensive refineries attached. People from those places get mainly that Mako as they are less likely to reject it, but those not from the experimental Mako outposts of Nibelheim and Banora get generic Gonoga and Midgar injections. In fact, when they are short on the special stuff everyone gets Gonaga or Midgar Mako. There really isn't anything in the Midgar area that can influence mutation: Kalm Fangs promote pack tendencies but that's it, apart from the rare Midgar Zolom which is so diluted it just promotes mild status immunity. Gonaga Mako on the other hand is much cleaner, stronger and positively _reeks_ of Griffin, which offers solid status immunity and considerable resistance to some of the elements. With me so far?"_

Sephiroth nodded, fascinated. He'd never considered it before but it made sense that, since Mako was Lifestream, what it had been before could influence how a SOLDIER developed.

"_Good. Gonoaga Mako is part of why the little puppy is such an excellent SOLDIER: his body takes to it better and is naturally more attuned to its specific frequency. If he ever reaches first-class he is very likely to develop wings of his own. However, you and your three colleagues have not just had Mako native to your birthplaces, but a lot of Gonaga Mako as well. Not much Midgar Mako as that's reserved for the lower level SOLDIERs but enough of the Gonaga Mako that some of your latent dragon traits have been suppressed by griffin ones. Similarly, with Genesis and Angeal some hippogriff traits have been quashed by griffin but those two species are close enough for it not to be much of an issue. Dragons are however very different from griffins."_

"So I'm a mess," the Silver General concluded hoarsely. What had Chaos just said about Zackary Fair and wings?

"_Not particularly,"_ Chaos said nonchalantly. _"The changes are subtle, for the most part, and the more visually impressive ones can be hidden. Much as I am hiding my wings now."_

Sephiroth hadn't noticed that he hadn't been hearing the leathery flap and swish associated with Chaos' wings. He cracked his eyes open again to check. With the summon/WEAPON hybrid blocking out most of the direct light through the tent wall it was easier to see and yes, Chaos' wings were indeed nowhere in sight.

"_You have gorgeous wings, little dragon; I am quite jealous,"_ Chaos teased with a gentle smile wildly at odds with his usual behaviour and odd-sounding choral voice. _"Soft, feathered and pearly grey, very like a griffin. Shaped for predation unlike Genesis' and Angeal's wings, which are designed for strength and endurance rather than speed and manoeuvrability. They look magnificent enough that your fanclub would hunt you down and rape you if they ever saw them."_

Sephiroth took some time to let this sink in but deliberately ignored the fanclub comment. "Since Angeal had no wings to be seen when he returned I assume they can be hidden?"

"_Easily. Genesis' have not even emerged yet but he has them waiting for there to be a need. They are a little like a limit break that way, but can be called upon at will not just in dire straits. Angeal has tried his out and discovered that flight is far more pleasant when you are your own pilot."_

"And the other changes?" Sephiroth wanted to know what 'minor' adjustments his body had thrown at him. He ached too badly to pick up the differences himself right now.

Chaos gently picked up one of Sephiroth's hands, drawing his attention to the semi-retractable, very sharp claws attached to the end of his fingers where he only remembered there being rounded nails. _"Same on your feet; your boots will need to be adjusted to accommodate them as well as for the slight shift in leg musculature and spine curvature. Gloves will hide the claws on your hands just fine; count yourself lucky I was able to purge the bit that wanted to give you a tail."_

Sephiroth pretended he hadn't heard that last sentence and studied his new claws, flexing his hand to see them flick from raised almost out of the way to curving in to strike. He'd almost lost an eye to griffin claws once; now he could return the favour.

"_There's a knack to fighting with claws; I'll have to teach you,"_ Chaos commented. _"Oh, and one more thing..." _He handed Sephiroth a mirror. The Silver General glanced at his face, then stared as the faintly ovoid pupils in his aqua eyes constricted into vertical slits. _"Dragon eyes, hatchling,"_ Chaos confirmed cheerfully, visibly amused by the look on Sephiroth's face. _"and you have considerable resistance to status ailments as a bonus, not to mention a massive affinity for fire. Oh, and most middling and lower level monsters will run away from you now since you smell dragonish as well. Actual dragons may get aggressive though, so watch out for that."_

Sephiroth smiled a little at hearing about his increased resistance to magic. Genesis loved fire spells; how would he react to the Silver General's newfound immunity to his favourite attacks?

* * *

><p>A week later Sephiroth was reluctantly making his way back to Midgar with Cloud and his mother, having just left Sunshine at the chocobo farm. The Silver General's feet were now unmistakeably digitigrade like a griffin -or dragon for that matter- rather than the normal human plantigrade and his boots had had to be cannibalised so he could wear them comfortably. Most of the sole had been removed on the inside under the ball of his foot and some of the pieces had been used to give more support to his heel, while a neat crescent had had to be cut out of the actual sole so his claws could be in direct contact with the ground.<p>

Valentine had promised him this was a temporary measure until she could get him proper replacements and removed her own sabaton-topped boots to show him that she suffered form a similar problem. The soles of her shoes ended a good way inside the metal coverings, allowing her own claws to scrape the ground and offer better grip. She explained it as having large amounts of Nibel Mako in her system mixed with Chaos-tainted Mako, which had promoted mutation in the place of the JENOVA virus. Her pale feet had rough, slightly pebbled skin and extremely long, wicked, dragon-like claws far more lethal-looking than Sephiroth's own. The nails on her fingers were blunter but no less strong, though the Chaos-gauntlet with its needle-sharp fingertips more than made up for the deficiency.

She also had practice in using the new accessories; Sephiroth secretly liked the sound of being able to scramble up cliffs and scale buildings without the necessity of traditional climbing equipment. He'd had a chance at least to try out his new wings, which had initially been awkward but swiftly evolved into wonderful and exhilarating. Perhaps he could look into taking up BASE jumping as a hobby.

Without the parachute, of course.

* * *

><p>Sephiroth survives but is deeply changed by the process. How much of that was inevitable, I wonder? Chaos' agenda is after all to create upheaval, but at least Seph escaped having a tail...<p> 


	27. Fractal Geometry

**Fractal Geometry**

During Cloud's first month as Sephiroth's aide, conspirator and general paperwork minion most of the sword training the General had put him through had focused on turning his katana kata into a workable combat style. Sephiroth had proved to be just as capable with a normal length sword as with Masamune's seven-foot blade and Cloud had been soundly beaten time after time. However the blond's stubborn nature led him to grit his teeth and persevere, incorporating bits and pieces of his knife training and hand-to-hand into his sword style. The Silver General had raised an eyebrow at some of the moves and exploited the openings created by some of the others, but Cloud knew he was getting better. Slowly.

However, on his first day back at ShinRa after the month-long holiday out on the grasslands Genesis cornered him in one of the SOLDIER training rooms and handed him a practice broadsword. "Here Strife," the redhead said with a wicked glint in his eye, "give this a swing."

Cloud obliged, first getting a feel for the blunt iron blade's weight and balance then carefully trying a few stances.

"Feet a bit wider," said Genesis, nudging the blond's right calf with a booted foot. "That's right. Hold the hilt like this." The Crimson General walked him through two basic pattern dances then had him repeat them over and over until he got them right every time. "Keep practising those; you've got a knack for the broadsword," Genesis told him after about an hour. "Now let's try a new-"

"Genesis, what are you doing with my aide?" came a chilly voice from the door. Cloud almost dropped his sword but Genesis grinned evilly.

"Just teaching Blondie here a few tricks; you wouldn't think it was his first time hefting a broadsword, would you?"

"Hn." Sephiroth stalked inside the practice room and shut the door firmly. "Strife, show me."

Cloud obediently ran through the two newly learned routines, breathing evenly and resolutely ignoring the glint of claws at the tips of the newly-arrived General's gloved hands. Once though slowly, then again faster.

"You dropped your elbow on the second time through the first exercise and your weight was unevenly distributed in the second," the Silver General said crisply, claws retracted but pupils still irritated slits. "Again."

Cloud carefully corrected himself and repeated the exercises.

"Better," Sephiroth conceded, pupils relaxing slightly to ovoid. "The third standard pattern goes like this..."

* * *

><p>Cloud did not escape the tutelage of the competitive twosome until three hours later, by which point he was about ready to keel over and his arms were weak as noodles. Sephiroth finally noticed how shaky his hands were and dismissed him to shower and change back into his office suit.<p>

"I want to introduce you to Lazard when I ask for his consent for you taking the SOLDIER exam right after your birthday," the Silver General explained, "and now is as good a time as any to do so."

Genesis wandered off to find someone else to irritate, smirk still firmly in place, while Cloud staggered through the shower, scarfed down a ration bar to appease his grumbling stomach and hurried back to the practice room where Sephiroth was waiting. When the blond pushed open the door the Silver General finished the kata he was doing with Masamune, replaced his sword on his back and led the way to the lifts.

Director Lazard Deuscerius' office was on the fifty-first floor. Cloud had never been inside; Zack had left him in the waiting area when he came up here to scrounge an ID card so the young blond could become the Silver General's aide.

When the lift stopped Sephiroth didn't so much as glance at Lazard's secretary; he simply swept out through the opening doors and strode over to the Director's office, Cloud hurrying at his heels. The General pushed the office door open wide enough for Cloud to slip in behind him and stopped a few feet in front of the desk loaded with paperwork. "Director Lazard. I see you have managed to redecorate since I was last in here." The office walls were bland, boring white once more.

"I have indeed General; yesterday the resident prankster rigged the intercom system to play Wutai Opera, which was interesting to say the least. It took the repair teams ten hours to work out where the music was coming from and how to stop it. IOn the second week you were away they also rigged the card readers to play different tunes depending on whose card was swiped. I believe my tune was the imperial march from Star Wars, though I am at a loss as to why."

The Silver General's face remained impassive, but Cloud detected a suspicious gleam of humour in his eyes. "You are nominally in command of the planet's largest army, sir."

"Perhaps." Lazard seemed unconvinced. "I suspect that if you had been here it would have been _your_ theme. The Turks all had various spy movie riffs -Veld got the Bond theme- Angeal had the Superman theme and Genesis' was what I believe were the opening bars of the LOVELESS overture. It was a truly unique day, though the other board members were less than amused. Scarlet in particular: She had the Jaws theme."

Cloud had encountered Scarlet once: Rude's choice of music for her was very apt indeed. The idea of Sephiroth as Darth Vader made him want to roll on the floor and howl with laughter, so he did his best to put it out of his mind.

"Anyway, I believe you had someone you wished to recommend for the SOLDIER program?" Lazard went on, eyes flicking over to Cloud. The Director was as blond as Cloud himself was, giving the young teen a very uneasy feeling. That face was just _too_ familiar for comfort...

"This is Cloud Strife," Sephiroth said, arm snaking out to push the short blond forward. "He is a capable swordsman, gifted with Materia and a seasoned monster exterminator. He will soon be of an age to enter the program and I believe he has the knowledge, talent and strength to safely forgo the eight weeks of cadet training."

"Strife? Ah yes, Genesis sent me an email commending his speed and skill in spellcasting," Lazard said absently, producing a sheet of paper from a drawer. "I believe he is also acting as your aide at the moment?"

"He has been a great help in the past weeks," Sephiroth agreed. "Once he makes SOLDIER I would like to take him on as my student."

"You've not shown an interest in teaching before," Lazard noted, eyeing Cloud with detached interest. "What makes Strife so special?"

"He does not blush, stutter or dither when addressing me, will look me in the eye when I speak to him, clearly expresses his requirements, is diligent and hardworking and does not gossip," the Silver General said flatly. "I have yet to meet anyone currently under your command able to meet those requirements."

"Ah. In that case I see no reason not to allow him to take the exams. Should he pass you may take him on as your student; should he fail he will nonetheless be permitted to enter cadet training and retest with the rest of the new recruits."

"Thank-you Director," Sephiroth said firmly, "Strife will not fail."

"You are quite welcome General," the bespectacled Director said lightly, eyes still on Cloud. "Have a good evening."

* * *

><p>Genesis does his best to poke at Sephiroth's temper and Lazard <em>notices<em> things. And you get to see some of what Rude did while Seph was away.


	28. Decoherence

**Decoherence**

Vincent Valentine knew that, sooner or later, the Turks were going to draw certain conclusions from the fact that the Valentine family money was no longer quietly gathering interest in a number of banks and stagnating in outdated investments. They would definitely have noticed by now and would be investigating who, exactly, was doing the spending since the family was supposed to be defunct, her half-uncle Codex having died in an 'accident' over a decade ago. When Veld, her former partner and the current head of the Turks, was eventually called to comment on the state of affairs he would look into it at once and in depth, which she had to be prepared for; she didn't want to have to dodge Turks around Midgar while The Plan was still in motion.

Part of the problem was that Turks didn't get to retire; Vincent wasn't dead, so she was still a Turk and that was the end of it. A rogue Turk since she wasn't toeing the company line, but still a Turk. Which meant she needed to set up a new identity to operate under that wasn't a Turk.

She had decided several years ago to set up an alternative identity for herself as her own daughter; no disguise would be needed and the many years' absence would have dulled people's memory as to her appearance. Lillith Valentine was twenty-four years old, setting her conception and birth during the eighteen months before the Nibelhiem assignment. In that time Vincent had been 'undercover' as a woman and not recognised by a single Turk while setting up a series of extremely unpleasant industrial accidents for the owners of the last few companies who opposed the ShinRa monopoly. That period had provided both the time and the opportunity for her to have conceived, given birth and hidden the child away with the Valentine family housekeeper to be raised in secret.

Her alter ego, whom Chaos had nicknamed 'Draculina', was a gymnast and exhibition shooter: Vincent had been setting her up for quite some time now and there was a credible paper trail. In the past years on the road Vincent had attended competitions as Lillith, done business as her and partied as her, creating the persona of a fiercely independent woman who lived for thrills and action but was still sufficiently business-savvy to keep herself in money indefinitely. The staff of the Valentine Mansion -other than the housekeeper- had been hired by stoic 'Mr Valentine' and had encountered the vivacious 'Draculina' separately, leading them to believe they were two different people who both travelled independently and met up at the mansion from time to time. Judicious usage of a mastered Confuse Materia had given every last servant various memories of father and daughter hunting and sparring together for if the Turks ever decided to investigate that far.

Lillith Valentine had acquired the nickname of Draculina because Chaos had been amused by Cloud's breathless query on first laying eyes on the former Turk and remembered it; when Vincent started setting up her alter ego the herald of OMEGA insisted Lillith have fangs. Thus as a compromise her younger self had only three thick gold bracelets on her left arm in the place of the clawed gauntlet, but instead had rather long, faintly curved and wickedly sharp canines in her upper jaw. The result was that whenever she smiled she flashed a little fang, which for some inexplicable reason men seemed to find attractive.

Lillith's clothing had also been a hard-fought compromise; red silk corsets that were both armoured and figure-hugging combined with either leather trousers or very short and gathered skirts for ease of movement, all in black or a shade of blood red that matched her eyes. Considering that Chaos always topped off the look with shoulder-length black gloves, tight black high-heeled boots that reached almost to mid-thigh and _pigtails_ she looked both extremely vampiric and -if she happened to widen her eyes and pout- appallingly cute. That last quality she blamed on the high pigtails and spiky bangs that framed her face and hung over her eyebrows: it was almost impossible not to look cute in pigtails.

Chaos had laughed like a drain at her protests that the new look wasn't quite her and just told her to get out there and cut loose a bit. _"You work all the time, little paradox,"_ he'd informed her with insufferable smugness. _"Go live a little and re-accustom yourself to being a beautiful and desirable woman. If you are to act the part your performance must be flawless."_

The grumbling avatar had reluctantly done so and rediscovered and old passion she'd all but forgotten: dancing.

Vincent loved to dance; it was like battle without the mess, risk and horror. Cutting a swath through dance clubs on two continents and acclimatising herself to the freestyle movements and harsh, vibrant music that had become popular during her time in the coffin had been both exhilarating and liberating: she had soon started experimenting, incorporating both combat moves and gymnastics into traditional dance moves. Some of those nights out had led to one-night stands; others had wound up with her coming to herself in an alleyway covered in blood while Chaos hummed cheerfully in the back of her mind.

This passion for dancing had let her to start exploring Midgar's dance scene as Lillith after coming back from the camping trip with Sephiroth, sticking to those above the Plate: under the Plate it was all brothels, bars or underground fighting rings. This had led her to being approached by the manager of the only club that offered SOLDIER-level alcoholic drinks, who offered her a free pass to the VIP lounge upstairs, free drinks for her and her guests and a small premium if she agreed to only patronise _his_ club in future. Vincent had read the contract, smiled and signed it as Lillith Valentine, then asked the man to call her Draculina. She knew why the offer had been made: Her dark, wild appearance was attracting a lot of attention -mainly from SOLDIERs- and the manager wanted to improve attendance and enlarge his clientèle. Her presence on the dance floor did that and the man was eager to offer her a chance to dance in one of the club's cages, if she wanted to.

And she did want to. Dancing was one of the few ways she could have fun, real fun. It also silenced the angry whispers in her mind and put Chaos in a good mood for hours afterwards. Besides, if -as Chaos had intimated- she was going to be twenty-seven for the rest of her unnatural life, she wanted to be able to wind down and fit in with the rest of her age bracket.

* * *

><p>Chaos liked it when his vessel went dancing, but his motives for finding the activity a pleasure were rather different. Rather than being intoxicated by the sheer joy of movement, the herald of OMEGA entertained himself by observing the reactions of those around his little paradox. Men walked into things, spilt their drinks and stared like fools, all but drooling while women either glared and tried to ignore her -futile and pathetic- or stared lustfully with their male counterparts. Even men attending whichever club she had chosen to patronise with their male lover were not immune to the sheer magnetism of his avatar when she lost herself to the beat.<p>

SOLDIER reactions were by far the best, though. There were -almost to a man- utterly captivated by her aura of strength and danger. No amount of cosmetic alterations could prevent her from registering as a powerful predator to Mako-attuned senses and she was quite possibly the only female any of them had ever met to do so. There were no women in SOLDIER and the only other Mako-enhanced woman Chaos was aware of was Genesis' genetic daughter Rosso in Deepground. In the scant week she'd been attending the club called 'The Underground' she had become the focus of a low-key yet very intense competition for her attentions. Chaos knew that in a few more days every last SOLDIER in the company would have heard of her and then the race really would be on: All those Mako-blooded alpha males were not just going to stand back and let her ignore them.

Chaos considered himself male, but that was purely out of practicality: his personality-type and thought-processes followed a structure was most commonly found in males of all species. Physically the quasi-summon could become whatever gender or combination thereof suited him at the time. The WEAPON had a rather limited experience of sex -he'd never been consciously aware of it before being implanted in Vincent and the former Turk rarely cut loose enough to indulge herself- but knew that he liked it. Had enjoyed it enough to have experimented himself a few times after getting out with a variety of partners, though not one of those unfortunate enough to catch his eye had survived the experience. He had however determined that his little avatar needed to find herself a mate. Humans seemed to work better once they were paired off and it would be easier to explore options and preferences with a long-term partner rather than a one-night stand.

The herald of OMEGA had also discovered -to his own bemusement- that he wanted children. He could vaguely remember having some in a previous incarnation -it had been Cloud who first pinged his parental instincts and for that the blond had cemented himself a place in the enigmatic being's heart forever- and determined that he wanted to repeat the experience.

Contrary to his vessel's deeply-held belief, Chaos' presence in her body had not rendered her infertile: the quasi-summon had simply adjusted her rather inefficient biology so that her fertile cycle would only kick in after a certain amount of regular sex from a partner she was emotionally attached to. That way a child would only be conceived when she was likely to want one and her body's limited resources would not be wasted.

Of course, his little paradox didn't _know_ that and Chaos had no intention of telling her. There was no way she'd plan to have a child in the next decade or agree to settle down with a male who would share but a fraction of her lifespan.

* * *

><p>Everyone needs to relax a bit and Vincent is no exception. Chaos is incredibly manipulative, isn't he?<p> 


	29. Entropy

**Entropy**

Kunsel had joined the SOLDIER program about a month before the war against Wutai really got started: He and his mother had been made homeless during the run-up to war when ShinRa's forces were setting up military strongholds along the coast of the Western Continent to facilitate the invasion of Wutai. Kunsel -then not quite fifteen- had helped his half-Wutaian mother to transport all their worldly possessions all the way to the Eastern Continent and the half-built city of Midgar, which was as far from the brewing conflict as they could travel. Having arrived without even the money to buy food and wanting to support his mother, Kunsel had immediately enrolled in the fledgeling SOLDIER program and passed through cadet training without attracting undue attention from either his teachers or his peers; he had been average and neither popular or unpopular enough for the other cadets to really care about him.

It was only during his first three months of actually being in the program and staggering between Mako injections and rediscovering his limits that the Wutai war really got going and anti-Wutai prejudice rose like a tsunami both within ShinRa and the entire city of Midgar. Kunsel caught on early, decided to wear his SOLDIER helmet religiously while on duty and bought himself several pairs of wrap-around sunglasses to wear when not in uniform; His mother may only have been half-and-half but he himself was closer to three-quarters Wutaian. While he kept his hair too short for its shiny smoothness to be noticed and his skin was just fair enough not to attract suspicion from bigots, his slanted, almond-shaped eyes with their deep amber Mako glow would not be winning him any friends on either side of the conflict.

His ethnicity prompted him to keep an ear out for the subtle rumblings of the rumour mill, which over time grew into a veritable passion for information and intelligence. Despite none of his fellow SOLDIERs having any idea what he looked like without the helmet Kunsel still made a lot of friends with his laid-back attitude and willingness to share what he knew, so he never lacked for conversation or sparring partners. In fact, the only indication that someone, somewhere -probably Director Lazard- was aware of his heritage was the glacial slowness of his rise to second-class -it took five years- and the simple fact that no matter how short-handed SOLDIER was he was never shipped out for a rotation in Wutai. Not even once. Instead he got sent absolutely everywhere else, often on missions which should have called for a higher ranking SOLDIER. Quite a few of those missions were with Turks, who Kunsel learned to get along with in the interests of not being looked at too closely. He ended up doing less monster extermination and more of the tedious but important stuff that related to the smooth running of the company.

Getting sent all over the Planet at the drop of a hat had taught Kunsel to keep a very close eye on both the mission database and the various local news bulletins of all the different towns across both continents and enabled him to collect a mass of information pertaining to almost everything in existence. His eventual promotion to second-class after the Kalm Incident -which Kunsel tried not to think about much- just increased his clearance, ability to access information and the range of mission types he was called on to perform. He also gained a reputation within SOLDIER of being the person who knew what was what, who was where and why.

Kunsel knew perfectly well that he was unlikely to ever be promoted to first-class, but that didn't really bother him. He had a job for life that paid well enough for him to support his mother in a small apartment in Sector Four, plenty of friends both inside SOLDIER and out and no shortage at all of interesting ways to pass the time.

* * *

><p>He first heard about Draculina through SOLDIER gossip; a pretty girl who was totally unphased by glowing Mako eyes was something of a rarity. That said girl was also described as 'moving like a first-class' could just have been an exaggeration but still warranted some in-depth investigation. Which was why, when his shift ended, the second-class went home, changed into casual clothing, grabbed a pair of wrap-around sunglasses with a reflective coating and headed out for The Underground. Whoever this Draculina was, she was bound to be worth knowing about.<p>

On entering The Underground Kunsel skirted the packed dance floor and made his way over to the bar, perching on one of the bar stools as he absently tapped his fingers to the beat and idly watched the fringes of the mass of moving bodies swaying in time with the music. He visited this club often enough to pick up gossip that the barman recognised him on sight and mixed him an Earthquake, lingering while the second-class swallowed it down.

"So, what brings you here Kunsel?"

"Rumours, what else?" Kunsel replied with an easy smile. An Earthquake was pretty stiff for a normal person -Absinthe and Cognac- but to a SOLDIER it barely qualified as a starter. "I've been hearing a lot about a new lady patronising this place."

The barman chuckled. "Draculina. Well, she's certainly worth gossiping about, I can tell oyu that. Shows less skin than the rest of the women who dance here but she still catches everyone's eye; especially the SOLDIERS. I've seen her eyes close-to once or twice and I swear they have a faint glow to them."

"No women in SOLDIER; Mako supposedly doesn't react reliably to their physiology," Kunsel commented, now very interested in this new player. Draculina was sounding more intriguing by the minute and appeared to be a person worth watching.

"Accident survivor then perhaps?" the barman shrugged. "I'll tell you something, though: She looks way to much like the Silver General for them not to be related."

Kunsel blinked. No-one knew if Sephiroth had family. Hell, even his _surname_ was a mystery. Current gossip held he had been engineered by the Science Department, which his newly-slitted pupils seemed to suggest might actually be a possibility. He'd heard a first-class swear the General had claws as well now. That was worrying as it suggested there was more going into the SOLDIER injections than just Mako. Or if it was just Mako, someone was playing fast and loose with disclosure on the long-term effects.

"Talking about me?"

Kunsel spun in his seat and was unable to keep himself from gasping at the girl who'd just managed to sneak up on him. His first thought was that there was no way she wasn't related to General Sephiroth; even with black hair and crimson eyes, Draculina -it had to be her- could pass as the man's twin sister.

Kunsel's second and final coherent thought was that she was by far the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. Her pale and exotic colouring, her modest yet revealing attire, her adorably messy hair and most of all her poise and facial expression combined to create a picture he could not look away from. Here, Kunsel knew instinctively, was an intelligent and powerful woman with more mystery surrounding her than ShinRa's entire science department.

Zhao Kunsel was hooked. He promptly fell head over heels in love with luminous red eyes and a faintly teasing fanged smirk that dared him to risk everything and find out exactly how far the rabbit-hole could go.

* * *

><p>Kunsel falls in love. Oh dear.<p> 


	30. Paradigm Shift

**Paradigm Shift**

Sephiroth was neither nervous nor tense. He really wasn't. True, it had been Cloud's birthday yesterday -his mother had let Genesis set up a small party and there was a chocolate cake sent to the blond by the Valentine housekeeper- and his aide was even now working his way through the SOLDIER exam since he was fourteen and Lazard had agreed to let the teen do it early, but that didn't mean that the Silver General was worried. Cloud would pass the tests easily, even the Mako tollerance ones; those had been a source of mild concern but Chaos had assured the extended Valentine family that '_the little chocobo_' would not have any adverse reactions whatsoever to being injected with Lifestream. Sephiroth chose to believe him -Chaos actually _liked_ the blond after all- and was not at _all_ nervous.

Genesis' constant teasing was however starting to become irritating.

How about we spar?" Sephiroth interrupted his redheaded fellow General's needling to suggest. "We never did get that rematch after Cloud stopped us."

Angeal looked slightly concerned but Genesis looked delighted. "Of course! In here?"

Sephiroth glanced around the interior of the Simulation room. "No; last time we damaged it before we could really test our limits. Sector Five has plenty of open areas and abandoned factories the main army uses for exercises. We could commandeer a section for the afternoon."

"True, especially since the cadets aren't in training yet," the Crimson General agreed. "Come on Angeal: don't you want to see if either of us can beat Sephiroth now?" _Now we've been cured_ was not spoken aloud, but all three SOLDIERs heard it nonetheless.

The Dark General sighed, shaking his head. "Well, since you're going to do it anyway I may as well come along to make sure you don't actually manage to kill each-other."

"Wonderful," Genesis said enthusiastically, charging out of the simulation room and forcing the other two Generals to move more quickly in order to keep up, "_My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess._ Blondie's been really good for you, hasn't he? You'd never have suggested this six months ago."

Sephiroth really wished Genesis would stop referring to Cloud as 'Blondie'.

* * *

><p>Forty minutes later the three Generals were standing in a very large open area used by cadets during training. As the second batch of this year's recruits would not be permitted to enlist until the first of September, the field was empty and in reasonably good condition. Even better, it was far enough away from the regular barracks that no-one would be stumbling across the fight by accident.<p>

And, best of all to Sephiroth's mind, Genesis still hadn't found out about his increased resistance to fire and most status ailments. A slightly evil smirk twitching in the corner of his mouth, the Silver General drew Masamune and prepared himself to fight.

"How about we make this more interesting?"

Sephiroth felt his brow furrow fractionally. What was Genesis playing at? "Your suggestion?"

The Crimson General grinned. "Just a little wager. I win, I get to take Cloud on as _my_ student. Nothing but the best for Blondie, right?"

"And when you lose?" Sephiroth inquired levelly. Genesis would _never_ get Cloud.

The redhead's eyes hooded slightly. "I'll share a little something Chaos told me. Very interesting and highly confidential information that involves us all indirectly."

Sephiroth considered the odds and inclined his head in agreement, new purpose suffusing his limbs. Up until now this had all been in fun, indulging Genesis' rivalry to pass the time and distracting the redhead from needling him. Now however the games were over; Cloud was the perfect student and Sephiroth refused to let go of him. He would have to strike fast and hard to take Genesis out without lasting harm; the Crimson General had massive stamina and was a versatile magic user while Sephiroth himself relied on speed and technical brilliance. They were evenly matched for sheer strength, so the sooner the Silver General had his opponent at a disadvantage the better.

* * *

><p>Fourteen minutes into the fight Sephiroth had experienced enough near misses with Firaga spells to have determined that they did not sear his skin as they passed him by. The promised 'massive affinity for fire' had indeed granted him total immunity to that particular element, so Sephiroth had no qualms in charging right through the next blast. This totally unexpected manoeuvre forced Genesis to retreat, wrong-footed, in an attempt to win himself a bit of breathing room. The Silver General did not play along, not even slowing as he wielded Masamune with intent to severely maim and denying his opponent of the chance to even try to think. The sooner the fight was over the sooner he could push through the paperwork that would confirm Cloud Strife's position as Sephiroth's protégé.<p>

Genesis parried desperately, danced sideways and cast a Flare at close range. The Silver General ignored the spell completely as it washed over him without even singeing his coat and continued to press his advantage. The Crimson General staggered slightly, recovered while parrying another blow and feverishly cast something new, his presence fading from the battlefield to be replaced by another, different one.

Sephiroth's eyebrow shot up as his pupils constricted from almost circular to fine slits. Genesis had summoned Bahamut. The draconic summon uncoiled itself in the air above the damaged field and roared a challenge.

Somewhere in Sephiroth's hindbrain something bloomed, hot, angry and inhuman.

He _refused_ to be defeated by a dragon.

Disregarding Angeal's gasp of surprise as his wings exploded into being the Silver General took to the air. On rising to the same level as Bahamut Sephiroth instinctively tapped into the Limit Break urging him forward and _roared_.

The world went white as the blast utterly obliterated the summon. Genesis fell out of the air as the reverberations faded, twisting desperately in an attempt not to break anything on landing. Sephiroth followed him down, wings furled as he prepared himself to strike. As the Crimson General stared wide-eyed up at the winged warrior plunging towards him obsidian wings ripped through the shoulders of his red coat, slowing his fall enough for the redhead to land safely.

Above his opponent Sephiroth adjusted his grip on Masamune and let gravity grant strength to his next and hopefully final blow. Genesis stared resolutely up at him, face tense and wings mantled, his Rapier glowing red as it came up to counter the strike.

Then Angeal was there between them, Buster sword rising to fend off Sephiroth's seven-foot katana as his standard blade crashed into Genesis' rune-reinforced weapon. The Silver General pulled his blow at the last minute and backpedalled, wings flapping, as he shook of the slight dizziness that came from having broken his Limit.

"Enough," Angeal said sharply. "I very much doubt either Cloud or Valentine would appreciate it if the two of you killed each-other. Genesis, summoning was going _too_ far and _Sephiroth_, what _possessed_ you to use a _Limit Break_ in a _spar_?"

Behind the Dark General Genesis swayed, his Rapier dropping away from the shattered remains of Angeal's SOLDIER sword. Sephiroth's eyes widened as he realised what he had almost done, then looked away. "Genesis, I apologise," he said shortly. "Chaos mentioned that I had acquired some draconic traits during treatment. It appears that the inability to back down from a challenge from another dragon is one of them."

"You pulled a Limit Break... out of _nowhere_... to face off against Bahamut?" Genesis gasped as his knees gave way. "_Damn_... what _was_ that you blasted me with?"

"It looked like Ultima," Angeal said grimly as he lowered his swords. "Quite possibly threaded through with Laser as well."

"An _Ultima-based_ Limit Break?" The Crimson General sighed. "You win." He collapsed sideways on the scorched ground, black wings slack and ungainly, a fragment of Angeal's shattered SOLDIER blade embedded in one shoulder. Sephiroth swiftly put away Masamune and hurried forwards to check his friend for damage, his own wings snapping neatly out of existence. He may have won the fight and accompanying bet, but if Genesis was badly hurt by the Silver General's stubborn foolishness then it would be a very hollow victory indeed.

* * *

><p>The big fight that set off everything in Crisis Core goes a little differently. Genesis getting badly hurt does not. That dragon thing is going to get Seph into trouble; even <em>I<em> didn't see it coming.


	31. Constant Pressures

**Constant Pressures**

It took quite a lot for someone to consider disturbing professor Hojo when he locked himself inside his private laboratories in the ShinRa science department. The preliminary results of the newest SOLDIER recruit's Mako tolerance tests were apparently interesting enough for the doctor supervising to risk forwarding the boy's medical files to the department head for a second opinion and further orders. The middle aged, bespectacled sociopath gave the faxed documents a cursory once-over, paused then reread them more slowly.

Cloud Strife had been personally recommended by General Sephiroth, the professor's finest work to date, who had also put in a request to have the boy as his personal student. The results of his fitness and combat tests placed him in the top percentile for his age and his performance in the written test showed a broad, well-founded knowledge base and a solid grasp of tactical thinking. Notes added by various supervisors indicated an almost uncanny knack for magic, a keen mind and a talent for broadswords. All in all, the kind of protégé Hojo approved of; the boy would learn quickly and not take up too much of Sephiroth's time. But it was the new recruit's ongoing Mako test that was the real gem: the boy had unnaturally high tolerance levels. Not resistance or sensitivity, but actual absorption. He'd been given the standard test injection of 0.2%, only slightly less than half what those accepted into third-class received, and he hadn't even broken out in the standard cold sweat that indicated that the body was trying to assimilate the boost. In fact, initial test results suggested that Strife's body had simply absorbed the Mako like it was a saline drip. Unnatural affinity indeed.

Hojo's interest was piqued. If he could monitor the boy and take regular samples he might be able to discover the specific chemical reaction and genetic sequence that created the higher tolerance levels which would -through gene therapy on selected specimens- create stronger and more resilient test subjects for him to experiment with. In two more years Specimen S would finally have matured enough for Reunion, but it would be advisable to have a secondary plan in motion on the side just in case things did not go as planned. Jenova knew most people were morons.

Removing this new specimen from SOLDIER would be premature; for a truly accurate measure of the new subject's abilities Hojo would be better off monitoring its progress against its peers in their shared environment. Higher tolerance levels meant he could give Specimen C more concentrated injections and the relationship between Mako levels and strength, speed and awareness could only truly be gauged in the field when assessed against the extant baseline provided by other SOLDIERs. Sephiroth's interest in the specimen also had to be taken into account; he did not want to overly antagonise his pet project.

That the new specimen was from Nibelhiem was a real stroke of good fortune: its injections would have been prepared separately regardless of dosage, making the adjustment process simpler. No-one would be accidentally getting Specimen C's shots and monitoring the effects would be far less complicated than if the boy was from Kalm or Costa del Sol. Perhaps the anomaly was a result of being from Nibelheim? It wasn't like he had a particularly large sample pool to work from if that was the case; Cloud was the only recruit to come out of that forsaken place since Sephiroth had been born there.

Hojo left his lab and proceeded to the science department's main floor, where SOLDIERs received their monthly Mako boosters. There wasn't really anything else on this floor except offices, as the professor preferred to keep his experiments away from the public eye. Some people really didn't understand that in order for scientific progress to be achieved, sacrifices had to be made. The assistant on duty led him over to the observation room overlooking where Specimen C was being evaluated; he did not want to alert Sephiroth to his interest in the boy and playing dumb would ensure greater access in the long run. Also, if the boy thought he was special the results might be contaminated.

He certainly did not look like much. Short, slender and with the ridiculous blond hair that indicated a Shinra somewhere up his family tree. The child of one of the President's early bastards perhaps, or maybe just the latest and youngest one. That was good; Shinra's took to Mako reasonably well as a rule and had a history of striving for excellence. A worthy student for Sephiroth in spite of his unassuming appearance. Hojo prepared a syringe filled with the 1% Nibelheim Mako solution that would generally be given several months into the program and handed it off to the technician standing by to inject into the boy.

The specimen wanted to know why he was getting a second injection and why the process was taking so long. The technician spouted off about 'inconclusive results', apologised for the delay and assured the specimen that nothing was wrong, successfully placating it and gaining cooperation. Hojo decided then and there that this budding scientist had potential; perhaps he could assign the man as Specimen C's supervisor? Creating bond of trust with the specimens facilitated the acquisition of results, though he personally never bothered to do so. However he did have a number of projects on the go and this was one that -with sufficient oversight- could be safely delegated. It was purely observational at this stage, not investigative.

Half an hour later the new SOLDIER showed nothing more than a slightly elevated heart rate and body temperature: usual symptoms for about half the Mako a person could take and still function normally. A third-class on 0.5% showed these symptoms a few months in, about the time Hojo boosted their shots to 1%. which meant that 1.2% was slightly under half the dose the boy could tolerate, so the professor prepared a 1.3% solution to test his theory. Five minutes after injection the cold sweats, unsteadiness and sensory overload finally manifested and Hojo was beside himself with glee. 2.5% for his test shot! It usually took six to eight months to get a SOLDIER up to that level but his new Nibelheim specimen had that as his baseline! The greasy-haired sociopath quickly added detailed specifications to Specimen C's files regarding supervision, dosage and proportional increases and ensured the computer file was tagged to notify him of any changes and updates. Sephiroth was training the boy so his innate potential would be fully expressed, making the experiment almost easy. All he would have to do was compare Specimen C's performance in the Simulation room to those of his peers to determine how far ahead of the curve he was.

Humming cheerfully at the prospect of a new project, Hojo returned to his lab. He had another experiment in progress at the moment and it had done something unexpected, prompting further investigation. It wasn't a failure, exactly, just new data he had not been prepared for. Specimen S's DNA held more potential than he'd initially believed; it was a shame he had been unable to keep samples from Specimen V to see if that was where the anomalies had originated.

* * *

><p>Hollander was the one called in to examine Genesis when the Crimson General was all but carried into the infirmary by a worried Angeal with an unusually closed-off Silver General at their heels. The professor was more than a little startled by the massive black wings that had sprouted from the back of his SOLDIER prototype but not particularly surprised: manifestations of the genetic traits acquired by Jenova was a recognised part of the degradation process he'd seen in the early animal test subjects. The redhead's cell turnover was still high and though it had not escalated further Hollander could see new mutations that had manifested since the last checkup. His overall genetic stability however was holding: perhaps a plateau until the current mutations surfaced?<p>

Hollander didn't really care. Genesis Rhapsodos was still dying and if the scientist was to get his chance to overthrow ShinRa he had to do it before his SOLDIER was too sick to assist him. He would offer Genesis the possibility of a cure to get the impulsive General to defect and inform him of enough of the truth of his heritage and background to distance him from the company and provoke his anger. The redhead was so easy to predict when he was angry.

Then Hollander would finally get a chance to prove that it was Project g, not Project S, that was the real success story of the SOLDIER program!

* * *

><p>Meet the scientists. Hojo discovers Cloud and sets up a new experiment while Hollander draws totally inaccurate conclusions due to lack of data.<p>

I am feeling half-dead at the moment; I think I may be coming down with something. Bah.


	32. Projected Trajectories

**Projected Trajectories**

Genesis Rhapsodos was a very emotional man. He never bothered to hide it; when he was angry he didn't try to prevent people from noticing and when he was pleased everyone knew about it. It was part of what made him so popular and such an effective leader. However, emotionally open is not the same as emotionally honest: Genesis had a subtlety that Turks would envy when it suited him to employ it. His emotions were complex and layered which, coupled as it was with his taste for the theatrical, was part of what made him such a dangerous opponent both on and off the field of battle. He could baffle you with bullshit whilst pulling the rug away from under your feet, leaving you to wonder what exactly had happened as his glowing red sword whizzed through your neck.

However his emotional nature also held a severe weakness. Whenever someone managed to severely upset him -usually by setting off his well-hidden insecurities- Genesis flew right off the handle and did irrational, hurtful things to everyone unfortunate enough to be in the blast radius. He hadn't always been like that: as a child he'd run to the woman he believed to be his mother for support or hunted down his best friend Angeal. The physical comfort of being hugged, held and generally soothed had taken the edge off his pain, diffusing the outbursts and enabling him to respond rationally. Puberty however had interfered, and he had decided at thirteen that he was too old to be snuggled. Joining SOLDIER had only bolstered and reinforced the conviction: he was a hero, a role model and a leading man; he did not -could not- have weaknesses. Sadly, being 'too old' did not take away the innate need for comfort when severely shaken and being too proud to even seek it out made him cranky to the point of explosive.

Or at least it had until that fateful day when Vincent Valentine his dear, deceptive cousin reluctantly told him about Deepground. Genesis had been shattered by the information but physically unable to get out of bed and break things in order to blow off steam. Instead the Crimson General had resorted to attacking Vincent verbally with all the vehemence his fever-addled brain could muster, which had devolved into a temper tantrum when she did not react at all to his biting words. The former Turk had watched him howl and flail weakly for a short while, then leaned across the bed and physically restrained him.

Pinned down, helpless and staring up into red eyes filled to overflowing with pain and empathy, Genesis had done something he hadn't done in over a decade: he'd burst into tears. He had been tired, in pain, weak as a kitten and too miserable to care about the loss of control. Vincent had seemed nonplussed by the emotional rollercoaster but had shifted herself around until she was hugging her redheaded cousin rather than pinning him to the mattress. Receiving the physical comfort he'd been craving had made Genesis cry harder, but the former Turk had just settled herself amongst the blankets and stroked his hair and back until the barrage of sobs and howls subsided to the occasional hiccup. When Genesis had glanced up at her face he'd seen a familiar and bizarrely reassuring expression: Vincent had looked _exactly_ like Sephiroth did when the Silver General was doing something he wasn't quite comfortable with and didn't really understand, yet nonetheless recognised as both important and necessary. Like when he was persuaded to do something social with the other two Generals on a Saturday evening. Comforted and rather feverish, Genesis had fallen asleep in his cousin's lap.

The Crimson General had been ashamed of his undignified outburst when he woke up again -especially when he realised that he was still lying across Vincent's legs- but his dear cousin had not let him get away with denying how much better it had made him feel. She'd told him outright that all human beings had needs and that denying himself would only weaken him in the long run. She'd also promised that, if he needed a shoulder to cry on and support while he ranted, she would make time for him.

"Sephiroth is my son, yes, but Angeal is my little brother and you are my cousin," Vincent had told him calmly. "I am still learning how to be a good parent, but I know you are and always will be family. Family members take care of eachother, especially when they are all the support they have. We _only_ have eachother, Genesis; Please don't make this any harder than it is already."

It was this gentle plea and calm acceptance of his imperfections that got Genesis to agree back in May, so as soon as the Crimson General got away from Hollander after the disastrous spar against Sephiroth he sent a PHS message to the former Turk. The scientists slippery words and manipulative half-truths had utterly infuriated the Crimson General; Hollander wanted to _use_ Genesis for his own purposes, taking advantage of a weakness that the man himself had created!

Doing his level best not to blow up where innocent bystanders could get hurt, the Crimson General signed out of the ShinRa building and stalked off to his apartment. Fortunately Sephiroth had taken the time to briefly explain how to hide his new wings, or the redhead would have attracted a lot of currently unwelcome attention.

On arriving home he carefully shut and locked his front door, then whirled around and violently knocked the little side table across the room. It bounced off the far wall, leaving yet another dent; his friends knew better than to give him easily broken items and the no longer flat walls of his apartment were a testament to how badly he could loose his temper. The table was rapidly followed by a brass statuette of Bahamut, a heavy candlestick and three large hardbacks before a red blur dropped through the skylight above him and pinned him to the carpet. Genesis struggled but it was like someone had dropped the Plate on him; no give at all. Vincent coolly divested the Crimson General of weapons and Materia then zipped across the room out of reach. The redhead swore a blue streak at the placid former Turk, throwing a few more books for good measure. She dodged them with little effort.

"What is upsetting you?"

Genesis snarled. "Hollander told me I was degrading, that I'd been lied to all my life and that if I helped him take down ShinRa he might, _might_ be able to cure me."

"He wants to use you," Vincent deduced instantly.

"I'm not really degrading, am I?" Genesis couldn't stop the question and wished he hadn't sounded so desperate. Vincent's eyes flashed gold for a second.

"Nothing is wrong with you except exhaustion; your wounds are closed and healing cleanly and the virus within you is inert," the former Turk told him, voice patterns betraying that she was parroting the words of the WEAPON within her. Chaos was part of why Genesis always, always submitted to Vincent's arguments eventually. She was favoured by the Goddess, an avatar of the Planet. Who was he, a mere hero, to go against the Goddess' will?

At the assurance that he was indeed in perfect health Genesis let himself break down. He'd been so irrationally afraid when Hollander spoke to him and so angry that the scientist was attempting to coerce him with vain hopes and maybes.

"What are you going to do?" Vincent asked about an hour later when the two of them were snuggled up on the couch listening to the new LOVELESS opera on the radio and Genesis had explained what he knew of Hollander's scheme.

"I'm going to pretend to go along with him and gut Deepground instead," Genesis said. He'd been trying for two months to work out how to get his genetic siblings out of the secret underground facility and Hollander's plot offered the perfect opportunity. He could intercept one of Deepground's teams out hunting for new recruits and test subjects out in Wutai, infiltrate the facility and get out before they could but up a coherent defence. The new wings would help; _any_ advantage would help.

His red-eyed cousin nodded thoughtfully. She had been a Turk, so she could appreciate a good strategy. "Let me know when you need my help," she told him eventually, "and don't go alone."

"I won't," Genesis promised. He would go along with Hollander's egotistical schemes until Rosso, Weiss and Nero were safe, then he would kill the professor for his part in Project G. The man deserved no less for his incompetence and greed.

* * *

><p>Genesis reacts, plots and makes his own decisions. The board is set; the pieces are in motion...<p>

An extra-big thank-you to all my lovely reviewers! Your encouragement keeps the muse on the ball!


	33. Wave Function

**Wave Function**

Cloud's first month as a SOLDIER third-class was a delicate balancing act. He rode out his first round of Mako boosters with the stubborn perseverance he'd honed training under Vincent, worked himself to exhaustion learning to fight with a broadsword under Sephiroth's watchful eye, sparred with Zack, chatted with Kunsel and had a number of private chats with Genesis. The Crimson General was planning something big, something he would have to go AWOL to achieve if Cloud was reading the signs correctly. The blond Turk-trained SOLDIER asked no questions, simply providing all the scattershot information his redheaded senior officer asked for and even introduced Genesis to Wolf one dark night; the girl turned out to actually be called Shelke, and was using her real name again now that ShinRa had finally given up on looking for her. She was now officially dead, apparently.

Despite being only nine and a half the girl wanted desperately to help those who would have been her fellow prisoners had she actually reached Deepground and agreed to provide Genesis with all the data and access codes she could tease out of the system. She was still new to Synaptic Net Diving, but she was a quick study and the information she'd copied from Cloud's brain had made her a very good hacker indeed. Among other things she was also getting scarily good with her jitte and Materia; Cloud had been taking her on monster hunts for three weeks before he got inducted into SOLDIER and she was going out on her own now.

Cloud soon learnt that despite thinking of himself as adequate when compared to Vincent, he was a prodigy by SOLDIER standards. He adapted to Mako with unusual speed, had sharper senses and reflexes than his peers who had been inducted four months previously and made magic look positively effortless. Casting spells with Mako running through him was child's play compared to before, quite possibly because he'd had to learn to do it the hard way back before his reserves had matured and he'd agreed to let a bunch of scientists inject Lifestream into his veins. He'd also acquired a mysterious sixth sense for danger that had probably built on his already keen awareness of being watched, which had been instilled through countless ambushes by Vincent -and Chaos come to that- under the rather flimsy excuse of 'improving his observational abilities'.

Cloud now could locate where the people looking at him were and which ones -if any- had hostile intentions. Not that a lack of intent made him drop his guard; some monsters weren't smart enough to have hostile intentions before they tried to eat you. This ESP-like ability gave him a massive advantage on extermination missions out in the slums and silenced most of the whispers of favouritism that had been roused by Sephiroth's mentoring. Not that there had been many whispers to begin with: Most of SOLDIER recognised him from his time as the Silver General's aide and respected him for his almost supernatural knack for getting Sephiroth to become more approachable.

Then in late September Genesis was dispatched to Wutai with a relief unit of SOLDIERs and Cloud was left to wait and worry.

* * *

><p>The next month went fairly smoothly: more training with broadswords, more spars with Zack and a new Mako shot slightly worse than the previous one, although he bounced back a little faster this time around. Angeal let him have a go with his treasured Buster sword and pronounced him 'a natural' and Sephiroth -in exchange for the Dark General's occasional lessons- taught Zack some sword moves Angeal didn't know and a bit more in-depth training on the effects and advantages of linked Materia.<p>

The Silver General had got his hands on six more new natural Materia since Cloud had shown him, Genesis and Zack how much better they performed compared to manufactured ones: a Fire, an Ice, an Earth and three All, all of which he was working very hard to level up. Several very nasty missions that month also helped Cloud level up his own Materia and when Shephiroth discarded his remaining manufactured Materia in disgust after a close shave with a pair of Midgar zoloms the blond gifted his mentor with his two remaining baby magic Materia: a Lightning and a Restore. Sephiroth had been reluctant to accept the gift but Cloud had insisted. The Silver General had given his stubborn student a _look_ for his insubordination, but said nothing more. Instead, the next day he presented to his protégé a truly magnificent broadsword.

"This is Heaven's Cloud," the dragon-eyed General said with a gleam in his eye, "your new weapon. Since you seem to have a talent for the larger types of swords I decided you needed a new main blade; that katana doesn't do your style justice and the standard ShinRa blades are pathetic. This is a gift, so don't even try to give it back."

The blond smiled dryly at the almost exact quote of what he himself had said the previous day about the Materia. Heaven's Cloud -despite the ridiculous name- was an absolutely superb blade with six separate Materia slots, high attack power and considerably more innate magic than his katana, Yoshiyuki. It felt cleaner than Yoshiyuki as well: that finely tempered blade held vengeance lurking deep inside and was always more powerful after the death of an ally. His new broadsword on the other hand was, well, pure. New, bright and full of potential.

"Thank-you sir," he said, twirling the blade to get a feel for its weight before settling down to run through a few pattern dances with it, never minding that it was only a few inches shorter than he was tall from point to hilt.

* * *

><p>Towards the end of October Angeal and Zack were also dispatched to Wutai; Cloud discovered after they had left that Genesis had successfully pulled off his vanishing act, taking nearly fifty of the third- and second-class SOLDIERs with him. The mission the Dark General and his protégé were on was also Zack's test for determining if he was ready for a promotion to first-class. Despite knowing that said promotion would include an injection of alien viral cells, the optimistic second-class was as cheerful as ever when he left and determined to do his mentor proud. Then ten days later, towards the end of the first week of November, Sephiroth himself was scrambled out to Wutai in a hurry and in the middle of the next night Cloud was roused from sleep by Chaos shaking him.<p>

"_Hush, little wolf, and listen to what I have to tell you."_

Cloud sat up, Mako-bright eyes casting a faint blueish glow, and paid attention. "I'm listening." Chaos had started calling the blond 'little wolf' rather than 'little chocobo' after his first Mako injection. Cloud rather liked the new nickname.

"_Good. Firstly, know that Angeal has defected and joined Genesis in his scheme to destroy Deepground and cripple ShinRa. Secondly, the little mage has already slain a Deepground platoon, taken their places with his followers and tonight has infiltrated Mako reactor zero beneath the ShinRa building. Rosso, Weiss and Nero have been rescued and even as I speak to you the little copy-cat is with them, deactivating the behavioural modification chips used to keep them in line so they can be removed. All three will be kept hidden away from Hollander and the Company alike until they have learned to be human. _

"_Unfortunately the little paladin lacked the courtesy to inform either the little dragon or the little puppy of his intentions so both were shaken by his sudden departure. The little paradox wishes you to tell them the truth of his absence and to help them adjust."_ Chaos paused. _"Ah yes. My dear avatar will only be in Midgar for two more weeks before leaving for a time to assist her newfound cousins. I also have a gift for you wolfling, one that I picked up on my recent travels."_ The quasi-summon dropped a massive, oddly shaped sword onto Cloud's bedspread. _"this is Apocalypse. It is slightly less powerful than the blade the little dragon gave you but Materia equipped to it in battle will level up three times faster."_

"Thank-you," Cloud said, examining his newest toy reverently. The sword had a deep red blade which had large pieces cut out of it, making it surprisingly light for its size. It also ended in two sharp prongs rather than the usual point and had curving cutaways just below the hilt on each side that would be good for catching an opponent's blade in.

"_I have a special blade in mind for you for when you are closer to achieving your true potential, little wolf,"_ Chaos said cryptically, _"but you are not there yet and it will take time and work for me to create what I know you will need."_

Cloud blinked. "Chaos, you're going to _make_ me a sword?"

"_You are like a son to me, little wolf, and a child of Chaos should be properly equipped to take on the world. Besides, the Lifestream sings of your future possibilities, most of which are very much to my taste. A good sword will aid you in achieving what I have felt hinted of in whispers and dreams."_

The blond third-class grimaced. "I have a destiny? It isn't as gloomy as yours is, I hope?" It was nice to know that Chaos saw him as a son though; the strange being actually did father-son type activities with him on a semi-regular basis, though they had often ended up with him getting killed by accident when he was younger.

"_No. Go forth and act according to your nature, little wolf. The Planet asks for nothing more than that."_

Cloud grumbled and rolled his eyes at the sheer unhelpfulness of that parting comment, but Chaos was already gone.

* * *

><p>So, Cloud gets used to SOLDIER, Genesis defects and Chaos shows a little more of his hand. Plans within plans and wheels within wheels.<p> 


	34. Fourth Iteration

**Fourth Iteration  
><strong>

SOLDIER second-class Zack Fair was not a happy puppy. Yes, he had almost single-handedly taken Fort Tamblin. Yes, his promotion to first-class was almost in the bag and would likely come through in the next six months. But Genesis had defected with a chunk of Zack's comrades for unknown reasons, Angeal had vanished and Sephiroth was angry with both of them for leaving him. Or quite possibly for not taking the Silver General with them; Zack wasn't really sure. The real problem was that he was stuck in the jungles of Wutai with a very unhappy General Sephiroth, a whole lot of troops looking to him for guidance -even the first-classes Ifrit damn it- and no Cloud. The absence of the chocobo-blond was a very big problem and one that would only be getting worse. The energetic second-class was not privy to the all the secrets Valentine had shared with the three Generals -Angeal had thought it safer to keep him out of the loop- but Cloud was and Zack's gut told him that Sephiroth's disgruntlement was connected to those secrets.

Cloud would be able to diffuse the Silver General's misery, but the blond wasn't here. Wasn't allowed to be here, even: he was going through the six months of Mako shots that everyone had to do on being moved up a level in the program, meaning he wouldn't be deployed on longer missions until the beginning of March.

By which point the war might very well be over, considering how Sephiroth was taking out his anger on the natives.

* * *

><p>Zack had initially only bothered to compare Sephiroth's pre-Cloud and post-Cloud behaviour, but now he was stuck out here with the General and without the blond he realised that there were three distinct variants rather than just two.<p>

Pre-Cloud the Silver General had been cool, aloof and intimidatingly professional at all times with a touch of subtle humour when he relaxed a little. Courteous but distant, present yet violently untouchable. After meeting and spending large amounts of time in the company of the spiky-haired blond Sephiroth had changed, showing two new behavioural variants: With-Cloud versus Without-Cloud.

With-Cloud was amazing: Sephiroth bloomed in the younger SOLDIER's presence, warmth seeping into his expressions and voice and dry wit infusing his words and actions as the aura of untouchability receded. Cloud was completely unafraid to punch, prod and generally harry his mentor in a good-natured fashion and Sephiroth reciprocated, ruffling his student's gravity-defying hair, patting him on the shoulder and occasionally flicking his nose with a clawed fingertip. The teasing the duo engaged in was subtle yet outrageous and the Silver General was often the instigator: only a month ago the three of them had had to ride chocobos for a mission and Sephiroth had been forced to bribe his his extremely jittery mount with Greens. Cloud had wandered closer to see what the problem was, helmet tucked under one arm, and the General had absently held out some of the Greens towards his protégé's face as he petted the crest of his reluctant bird. Cloud had queried why his mentor was shoving leaves at him and had been met with a blink and a stare.

"I am sorry Strife," the Silver General had said mildly, "but I mistook you for another chocobo there. Perhaps a change in hairstyle would be in order?"

Cloud had blushed, growled and muttered something about evil Generals and poor humour but Zack had been clutching his sides and sniggering uncontrollably. Sephiroth _did_ have a sense of humour and it was pure genius! Genius!

Unfortunately, it appeared that all this friendly warmth melted away when Sephiroth was Without-Cloud. The chilly aura of isolation descended again even colder than before and the Silver General stepped back behind icy walls and spoke to all and sundry with a brisk courtesy and cool professionalism that was even less inviting than his Pre-Cloud attitude. Zack guessed that Sephiroth missed his student's cheerful presence and retreated inside himself so as not to put his melancholy on display, but that wasn't much fun for those who had to deal with him in the meantime.

Cloud didn't actually have to be right there all the time to trigger the thaw in the Silver General's attitude, just around and findable. Unfortunately the blond was currently on the other side of the Planet and Seph was the only General ShinRa had left, so the silver-haired SOLDIER would have to stay in Wutai to lead the campaign. Wutai, where Cloud wasn't. The SOLDIERs who'd been deployed from Midgar with Zack himself and had witnessed how the Silver General's mood depended on the presence of his protégé were already muttering with their colleagues who'd been out here for longer and eyeing their new commander nervously.

* * *

><p>Of course, Zack also had problems of his own. Why would Angeal defect? For that matter why would Genesis defect? Was it connected to the wings everyone in SOLDIER knew the Crimson General now had? Zack thought those were a result of the experimentation that Genesis had been put through early on in life, but if that was the case did Angeal have wings as well now? And what about Sephiroth? The Silver General certainly had very strange new pupils in his eyes and very sharp claws; Seph had yanked Zack out of the way of a blow during his fight against the SOLDIERs in strange uniforms and cyclopic helmets and the second-class had recieved a neat little row of puncture wounds in his forearm as a result. True they had healed quickly enough afterwards, but still. Claws.<p>

But why, oh why would Genesis and Angeal just leave without telling Seph, who had suffered just as much as they had at the hands of the science department, if not more so? Why would Angeal leave him, Zack, behind? Where was the honour in just _abandoning_ the people who counted on the Dark General?

Ifrit's Hells, what about Valentine? Did she know what was going on? She'd spent a lot of time after hours with Sephiroth in the past few months in between her random trips out of the city, so where did she fit into all this?

Zack groaned and clutched at his hair. This was so not good. In fact, he would go out on a limb and say it was bad. In four days more reinforcements would be shipped in from Midgar to replace the deserters but nobody would be allowed to return to the city for a further two weeks at the very least, if not longer. Two whole weeks of increasingly cranky Sephiroth going through Cloud-withdrawal and nobody else for miles around capable of deflecting the General's attention.

He was doomed.

* * *

><p>Zack worries. Sephiroth sulks. Angeal really should have known better.<p> 


	35. Quantum Leap

**Quantum Leap**

Cloud knew he was not going to be allowed to ship out to Wutai to join Zack and Seph. He'd barely been in the program three months and still had to take Mako shots every three weeks or so. However according to Chaos his friends needed him and Cloud's personal motto was 'friends come first'.

So Cloud was going to put his health and career on the line and get himself onto the roster of troops getting shipped out to Wutai.

It was almost easy to hack into the ShinRa mission database and replace the name of one of the more seasoned third-classes with his own. The shipping-out date was only two days after his next booster, so he would likely be half-dead and suffering aural hallucinations -not a good combination for someone who suffered from travel sickness- but Sephiroth needed him and nobody else understood the man hiding behind the Silver General's façade. Zack could see the older man alright but didn't really know how to engage with him. Besides, Zack would be suffering as well; Cloud had previously believed Angeal to be the sensible one but no, it seemed that Genesis was. And wasn't _that_ a scary thought.

* * *

><p>His next booster shot left him bedridden for twenty-four hours. He probably should have rested longer but the dispatch orders arrived through his company PHS at that point and the blond had no intention of missing his flight. So he packed up, doggedly checked his weapons and Materia, found and ingested his SOLDIER-strength travel sickness medication and stumbled out to the rendezvous point. He could explain away his poor health as the drugs and his hatred of any kind of enclosed motor transport, which would stop people from looking deeper into why he looked so awful. Thank Odin for the concealing SOLDIER helmets though; if he got recognised now he'd be sent back to his bunk in short order.<p>

Once on board the transport plane Cloud found a quiet corner, slumped down in a vacant seat and shut his eyes, willing away nausea as he made sure the medical tags around his neck hung outside his sky-blue third-class uniform. He was also wearing the regulation sword he personally never used, Heaven's Cloud, Yoshiyuki and Apocalypse all hidden away in his inventory pack with his dragon armlet; without them he blended in nicely with the rest of the SOLDIER third-classes, his slightly shorter stature not noticeable when he was sitting down. Letting the drugs lull him into a stupor the blond focussed on what he would have to do on reaching Wutai in order to help his friends; most importantly, he needed to get better as quickly as possible.

The next thing Cloud knew he was being shaken awake. By a fellow SOLDIER, which was why his danger-sense hadn't been set off by the man.

"Up and at 'em, SOLDIER," a second-class -Sebastian, Cloud thought his name was, one of Zack's friends- said quietly. "I saw the tags; travel sickness huh? I'm guessing you were drugged insensible for the entire flight."

Cloud managed to grunt an acknowledgement as he carefully rose to his feet. There were wispy green veils trailing across his vision, whispers in his ears and all his senses were hypersensitive. Too loud, too sharp, too damp, too bright, too rough... He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and resolutely ignored it all. He had not staggered out of bed halfway through his recovery period just to get sent back before he could do anything. He had to stay under the radar until after the plane had left again.

"Everyone else is unloading the supplies from the hold," Sebastian told him as he supported the helmeted blond's tottering steps towards the exit. "I'll get you down to your bunk so you can finish sleeping off your meds. What the science department hands out to SOLDIERs could drop a behemoth."

Cloud allowed himself to be steered across an airfield, through a bustling campsite and into the rough barracks built of logs and full of bunks. Pausing by an empty bed he shoved his official pack and inventory underneath the frame. "Thanks," he managed to rasp before flopping down on top of the covers and just lying there. The second-class chuckled softly, pulled Cloud's boots off and left him there.

"I'll give your excuses to lieutenant Fair," Sebastian promised. Cloud barely had a chance to smile his thanks at the older man before disorientation and sensory overload gripped him again and pulled him down into green haze.

* * *

><p>The next time around Cloud was dragged back to wakefulness by a familiar voice.<p>

"... Spiky, you idiot, what _are_ you doing out here? As soon as I saw your name on the roster and Sebastian mentioned a guy with severe travel sickness I just knew something was up; you're Mako-sick aren't you? You're supposed to be in Midgar safely tucked into bed or training in the practice rooms, not out here in the field away from competent medical help," Zack rambled. Cloud still felt a bit queasy and his senses were still a bit to acute for comfort but he was no longer seeing green everywhere and the hallucinations had stopped. No more whispers, roars or howling choruses.

"Zack," he rasped, cracking his eyes open to see his friend sitting on the edge of his bunk. "Water?"

"Spiky, you're awake!" the second-class exclaimed, swiftly handing over a water bottle and hovering as Cloud poured some of the precious liquid into his dry mouth. "What the hell were you thinking, coming out here?"

Cloud shrugged, levering himself halfway to a sitting position. "Ordered to deploy."

Zack frowned at him, eyes suddenly serious and the blond was abruptly and unpleasantly reminded that his friend was being considered for promotion for first-class. However naively optimistic he looked, the tall brunet was smart, quick and highly aware. "Cloud, don't even try to feed me that bullshit. There's no way you would have been deployed during your six-month induction. Try again."

"Clerical error?" Cloud offered weakly. He didn't want to tell; secrets were easier to keep when nobody knew about them.

Zack rolled his eyes. "Fine, don't tell me and I won't call you out on it, but you _will_ be staying in bed until you're better. Mako sickness is nothing to mess about with." The second-class slumped miserably. "Now I'll have to tell Seph that his precious student has smuggled himself out here and is sick as a dog. Joy."

Cloud patted his friend's arm comfortingly. "He won't shout at you, Zack. Just ask you how the hell I got out here then dash over to rip me a new one for being so careless of my health. Then as soon as I'm well enough he'll drag me out to a practice field and work me 'till I drop as punishment for being an idiot."

Zack chuckled. "Heh. So he will. Then he'll hover like a mother chocobo until you're on your feet again and all will be well once more." He paused. "What do you know about what happened out here lately?"

"Valentine stopped by my room a few nights ago and told me," Cloud said, keeping his voice too low for eavesdropping SOLDIERs to pick up on and not mentioning Chaos at all. "Genesis deserted ShinRa Zack, not you or Seph. But it had to be kept secret or you'd have been suspected of collusion. Seph would have had to stay behind anyway to protect the remaining SOLDIERs from the high-ups' idiocy. Genesis learnt he had younger siblings in a ShinRa lab somewhere and defected so he could get them out; I have no idea why Angeal left through."

Zack was silent for a moment, processing the sudden change in situation. "I get it," he replied softly, "but I don't like it. Why would Angeal abandon us like that?"

"No real idea," Cloud admitted, "not even Valentine knew. It may have something to do with Genesis being his first friend but that doesn't really hold water."

The second-class snorted. "So much for honour."

"Honour is all well and good but family and friends come first," Cloud said firmly, "which is why I'm out here in the first place. Honour is cold comfort if everything else is gone. You fight for your comrades and friends as much as you do for the pride you have in your rank, don't you?"

"I suppose so." Zack brightened a little. "I'll go see to it you get fed and tell Seph that his protégé smuggled himself out to the front. That should distract him from terrorising the auxiliary personnel about the fact communications are down."

Cloud shifted around until he was sitting up on his bunk. Yes, Sephiroth would be livid that he was out here and Mako-sick, but it was better than the alternative.

* * *

><p>Cloud does his hero thing and engages in a little illicit activity to bend the world his way.<p> 


	36. Entanglement

**Entanglement**

Kunsel did not limit his socialising to engaging with his fellow SOLDIERs and chatting with the civilians living above the Plate. In fact, on alternate Saturdays he snuck out of his apartment in clothing that looked similar to -but wasn't quite- Wutaian national dress, put on brown contact lenses in a public bathroom to hide the Mako glow in his irises and visited a sake bar in Sector Two in the slums. Half of the area of Sector Two under the Plate had been swallowed by what the locals called 'little Wutai', packed full of war refugees and orphaned children whose appearance gave away heritage that caused them to be discriminated against by those outside the Sector.

The SOLDIER's drinking partner on these outings was his only fellow Wutaian within the Public Safety Maintenance Department, a man called Tseng. Kunsel didn't hold the quiet, tilak-marked half-Wutaian's profession against him; the Turks were quite probably the only department of ShinRa prepared to hire people with their kind of ethnic background since the war got going.

In contrast to Kunsel's treacle-slow rise through the SOLDIER program Tseng's ascent within the Investigative Division of General Affairs had been positively meteoric: Only three years ago he'd been a rookie and now he was second in command of the entire department, answering only to Veld, who headed the Turks. Tseng was also the main public interface for ShinRa's blue-suited enforcers; Veld preferred to work from the shadows and met only with other Turks, the President and a few of the board members. Tseng on the other hand had regular meetings with Reeve Tuasti of the Urban Development Department, Director Lazard of SOLDIER and professor Hojo, patrolled the streets of Sector Eight with the lower-ranking Turks and was fairly easy to find within the ShinRa building when he wasn't out on a specific mission.

However, despite his ever-lengthening list of responsibilities, Tseng still made time on every other Saturday to meet up with the SOLDIER who'd welcomed him into the company with a smile and the offer of a drink in a quiet sake bar where wrinkled old men held conversations in the complex tonal language only the Wutai spoke and half the patrons pretended politely that they weren't really eavesdropping on the two young men who came in to drink and talk about current affairs. Nobody in the bar cared what they did for a living, only that they were among the most personally successful Wutai in the entire city and had access to information that would otherwise take weeks to percolate down to Sector Two. In deference to this tolerance Kunsel always started the conversation with the latest unclassified news from the front while Tseng covered the economic, social and criminal highlights the Turks had picked up from the besieged continent.

In exchange for this up-to-date news from their homeland the two ShinRa employees got a quiet place to drink real sake away from the eyes of the Company and all the privacy they could possibly desire as soon as the unofficial news bulletin was finished. Typically this prompted the two men to switch the discussion over from business to personal as soon as they'd finished talking about Wutai.

* * *

><p>"Have you managed to spend more time with the woman you mentioned meeting in The Underground yet?" Tseng asked about half an hour into their chat, sipping his sake with a steady hand. Turks got Mako shots as well; not enough to give their eyes the distinctive Mako glow but quite enough to grant a decent resistance to alcohol.<p>

"I've had two dates with her so far," Kunsel replied with a giddy smile. For all her exhibitionism in the cage and on the dance floor Draculina was actually a very quiet and private person. The SOLDIER had coaxed her out to dinner in a fancy restaurant and another time to see a production of LOVELESS, both of which had been successful in helping him get to know her better and gain greater insight into her personal quirks. He had however not learnt a single thing about her rumoured connection to Sephiroth, if it even existed. Not one of his gentle hints or leading questions could coax so much as a word out of her to either confirm or deny the existence of other family members. Not that he would stop trying; she clearly enjoyed the careful dance of words and meanings as much as he did and the second-class had no intention of ending the game any earlier than he had to. Draculina was _fun_.

"Do you know her name yet?" Tseng asked, a sly gleam in his eye animating his usually bland face.

Kunsel grinned, unruffled. "Yes I do indeed! Lillith Valentine, of _those_ Valentines. An adorably competent heiress, is my little vampire. She prefers to be called Draculina though."

At the mention of 'Valentine' Tseng had paused with his sake dish in mid-air. "How old is she?"

Kunsel shrugged. "Somewhere between eighteen and twenty-eight? It's hard to tell. Why?"

"Veld's original partner in the Turks was called Vincent and something of a legend; better by far even than Veld and had a perfect record," Tseng said softly. "He was a Valentine, one of _those_ Valentines. He's reported to have died in a laboratory accident in Nibelheim twenty-three years ago, supposedly the last Valentine other than a half-uncle who died a decade ago and never gained control of the family money."

"What did this Vincent look like?" Kunsel asked, curious.

Tseng smiled wryly. "Tallish and slender with messy black hair and blood-red eyes."

Kunsel whistled. "Sounds very like Draculina. Especially if he had _red_ eyes; that can't be very common. Perhaps she's his daughter."

"If so he did an impeccable job hiding her and her mother from the Company," Tseng mused. "As it is a possibility I'll have to inform Veld; it's Turk business, you understand."

"Just in case this Vincent isn't as dead as he was reported to be," Kunsel agreed. "I know how it is. But what the hell was the company's best Turk doing to have died in a lab accident in _Nibelheim_ of all places? There's nothing there!"

"Professor Hojo was working on a project up there with the late professor Gast," Tseng said neutrally.

"Hojo?" Kunsel paused, a nasty little suspicion crossing his mind. "Did anyone actually check the guy was dead or did they take Hojo's word for it? Because Sephiroth's almost twenty-three and he looks spookily similar to my Draculina."

"No further investigations were made," Tseng murmured distantly, "and I would have to verify the resemblance for myself before drawing conclusions."

"Hm." The second-class changed the subject. "Any idea why Genesis of all people would defect? He loved being a hero and getting all the attention. Just leaving the Company like that isn't his style."

The Turk pinned his friend with a neutral stare. "We were informed that the Crimson General had broken into a secure laboratory and stolen equipment, weapons and a large number of specimens. Casualties among SOLDIERs guarding the facility were very high. Several thefts from the ShinRa archives in the same time-frame lead us to believe that the project interests Genesis and his allies in some way, though we have not been informed of the project's nature or possible reasons for his interest. "

"Odd." What kind of project was too classified for Turks? "No SOLDIERs have died in the past two months other than five out in Wutai and one idiot who let a Midgar zolom get the drop on him," Kunsel idly told the Turk sat opposite him.

Tseng looked troubled. "Keep your head down, Kunsel. The President is highly irate with Genesis and SOLDIER in general at the moment. Whatever this 'secure laboratory' really was, it fell under his personal oversight."

"I will," Kunsel promised. "You take care as well Tseng."

The Turk inclined his head politely, finished his sake and left the dingy bar. The second-class lingered a little longer over his drink, pondering what he'd learnt.

Draculina was quite possibly the daughter of a Turk, an infamous Turk who might not be as dead as he seemed.

Genesis had somehow discovered and raided a top secret ShinRa project, one apparently operated by SOLDIERs who did not exist in the official system.

Kunsel sighed and set about writing an email to Zack. He suspected that Cloud's absence from the ShinRa building meant the blond had somehow gotten himself shipped out to Wutai, which his friend should be able to confirm for him.

He'd also heard yesterday that Angeal of all people had gone AWOL, which was just weird. The Dark General didn't have a dishonourable bone in his body.

What the hell was going on at the moment? Was everyone going mad? Kunsel had the distinct feeing he was out of the loop on something big, which really, really bugged him. He _was_ the loop, dammit!

He could always email Cloud. Perhaps _he_ knew something.

* * *

><p>Kunsel and Tseng have a quiet drink together and discuss things. Information changes hands and new investigations are initiated.<p>

And a little more info on Vincent's social life, since she won't talk to _me_ about it at all.


	37. Local Realism

**Local Realism**

A little under a month after Cloud got himself deployed to Wutai and two weeks after Zack was summoned back to Midgar a Turk-piloted helicopter arrived at the base camp. Sephiroth was drilling his protégé in broadsword techniques when an MP approached them from the direction of the airfield.

"General Sephiroth sir! Professor Hojo to see you!"

The Silver General growled slightly in his throat. "Cloud, continue your practice for another hour then come and find me. I should be in the office and will require your assistance with the inevitable paperwork." He stalked off, pupils thin slits, the military policeman trailing in his wake.

The blond continued his pattern dances, wondering why the science department's head sociopath would fly all the way out here. What exactly did the professor want with Seph? Had Hojo detected anomalies in the General's JENOVA cells?

"Third-class Strife?"

Cloud lowered Apocalypse and turned towards the infantryman who had called him by name. "Yes?"

"You're wanted in the infirmary, sir."

"Thank-you, infantryman." Cloud fastened the elaborate-looking blade to the harness across his back and set of at a jog for the field hospital. He had no idea why he had been summoned and couldn't think of any reason he'd be needed in the infirmary -unless Seph wanted him there- but he was acutely aware that his behaviour affected how people reacted to Sephiroth since he was the silver-haired SOLDIER's personal student. Tardiness, when everyone around him watched like hawks, would be exceedingly unwise.

When he arrived he was surprised to find the technician in charge of his Mako injections waiting for him. He really shouldn't have been, he reflected an instant later; he was due his next shot.

"There you are, Strife! Whichever idiot in the administration department ordered you out here caused me no end of trouble. I was fortunate professor Hojo was planning a trip out here to give the General his latest booster in person and permitted me to join him so as not to set back your development. Did you keep a record of symptoms from you last injection like I asked you to?"

Cloud dutifully fished his PHS out of a pocket and opened the diary feature. All SOLDIERs were required to keep track of their symptoms during boosters to reduce the chances of getting addicted or poisoned by the Mako when the next shot came around.

"Yes sir. Here it is."

The technician scrolled down, humming absently. "Good, good, hm, green wisps? Not overly unusual. Aural hallucinations are normal, don't let them bother you."

"I didn't have any until the last shot," Cloud said tentatively.

"You're just lucky to have an excellent tolerance for Mako, third-class Strife," the technician said briskly. "It is not surprising for you to show fewer symptoms than your peers. This next shot is only slightly higher than the last one as a concession to your position in the field, which with the recent mess cannot be countermanded. I will be leaving the medic here a set of boosters for you to take in the next two months. You will have to take them every three weeks rather than every month as they are less potent than they should be but you will be up to speed within the usual time if you stick to the regimen." The lab-coated man showed Cloud the locked hazmat box containing a set of syringes loaded with glowing green and clearly labelled with specific dates. "As we will not be in direct contact until you return to Midgar I want you to email me the documentation of your experiences and symptoms at the end of the week after you take each shot. I have also put in a request for a full performance review when you are permitted to return to Midgar so I can see where you stand in regards to SOLDIER standards."

"Yes sir." Cloud knew all that stuff was standard protocol when you ended a round of Mako shots. The only bit that wasn't protocol was that they'd fiddled his boosters a bit so as not to completely incapacitate him in the field or risk his needing a specially trained Mako doctor rather than a standard field medic.

"Sit down on the table so I can give you your first shot, then go straight to your bunk to rest. The General very generously agreed to allow you to move in to one of the individual rooms attached to command headquarters in light of your medical requirements."

Cloud nodded his understanding; he wouldn't be surprised if Sephiroth himself was also considerably under the weather for the next few days. True, the Silver General's shot would only be a minor one for Mako level maintenance, the standard six-monthly boost, but it would still be uncomfortable. Especially if Hojo laced it with JENOVA cells, which Cloud wouldn't put past the insane scientist.

Of course, Seph's new and Chaos-improved immune system would completely obliterate any new infections from JENOVA, but the General would still feel like he had the 'flu for a few days.

* * *

><p>As soon as the Mako entered Cloud's bloodstream the sounds around him muted slightly, drowned out by a chorus of competing voices and howls. The blond swayed, vision tinged virulent green, blinking rapidly as the voices twisted and merged, some rising whilst others faded away. He was vaguely aware of the technician saying something about thresholds and maximum safe dosage, but that vanished as quickly as it came.<p>

The voices in his ears were the same ones as he'd heard last time, which couldn't possibly be normal. There was the one who reminded him a bit of Angeal, another that ranted like Genesis when you insulted LOVELESS, a third who sang incessantly, one who grumbled and plotted and four or five who just shouted about hunts and chases with wild joy and utter abandon. He rather liked those ones. Blending in and out of the cacophony was the distant roar of dragons and the much more distinct polyphonic chorus of hundreds of Nibel wolves.

Cloud made an effort to focus on his surroundings rather than the noise emanating from the Lifestream in his blood; succumbing to Mako poisoning at this point would be highly detrimental to his goals. The technician summoned another anonymous infantryman and had the newcomer escort the blond third-class to his new bunk. Cloud shivered, mumbled and staggered like a junkie as his nervous escort -who had to be his own age- led him to a cupboard-like room in the command complex that smelled like Zack. This had probably been where the second-class had slept before getting recalled to Midgar. The reason the room was empty was that it was directly adjacent to Sephiroth's quarters: the Silver General preferred to take over Angeal's rooms after the Dark General deserted rather than commandeer new ones. Zack had not been kicked out of the room Angeal had insisted he occupy after Sephiroth moved in, but after the energetic puppy was recalled nobody else had the nerve to move in.

Now Sephiroth had moved him in, tacitly announcing the blond to be his student and aide to the entire camp. Cloud wondered vaguely how many people would think they were sleeping together. There had certainly been enough rumours about Zack and Angeal...

The blond third-class thanked the infantryman carefully, forcing the words out past his thick tongue, then clumsily stripped down and burrowed under the covers. Hopefully the technician had noted down the shot on the medical log, which would ensure nobody tried to roust him out of bed for guard duty tomorrow or the day after. As it was he would be spending several days after getting vertical again rediscovering his limits. Hopefully not to the point of exceeding them; he'd only accidentally pulled a Limit Break in a spar once, but had it been against anybody except Vincent serious injuries would have involved.

* * *

><p>Cloud was very happy to discover that this time he bounced back much faster, despite the first twenty-four hours being utterly foul. Only a day and a half in bed, followed by two days on the practice fields as his physical discomfort slowly decreased and he was able to reassert control over his senses.<p>

Sephiroth on the other hand had refused to just sleep off the effects of his shot, riding out the sensory overload with rather less than his usual grace and poise whilst rumbling ominously as a volcano at anyone unfortunate enough to be brought to his attention. The Silver General's only concession to his less than perfect health had been to spend most of his time in his rooms doing paperwork and the rest of it visiting Cloud, nominally to bring food or check on his protégé's condition. Seph's eyes had been as bright as searchlights those first two days, which could only have made his underlings more nervous: when a SOLDIER's eyes actually shone it was a clear warning sign that the SOLDIER in question was dangerously close to losing his temper.

True, in this instance it was due to the unusually high levels of Mako in the General's system, but the grunts didn't know that. Cloud's own eyes were unusually bright for almost an entire week after each shot.

* * *

><p>Seph and Cloud, still stuck out in Wutai. Not that that will stop Hojo from making sure his pet projects get their shots...<p> 


	38. Unequal Probabilities

Chaos Babe, Lifestream -and Mako- is made of _dead_ people. So the voices Cloud hears cannot be from people who are still alive. Rest assured however that he is hearing very interesting dead people with future relevance to the plot.

Now, on with the show!**  
><strong>

**Unequal Probabilities**

Zack sat in the helicopter opposite the Turk Lazard had introduced him to earlier that morning. Tseng didn't seem all that bad for a blue-suit, but the mission was weighing on his nerves. For one, it was supposed to have been Seph's mission but the Silver General had exercised his little-used right of refusal, preferring to dodge fanatical Wutai guerrillas in the jungle rather than stroll through Angeal's home village and try and coax the Dark General back into the fold. Considering how close the three Generals had been before this mess got started, that refusal bothered Zack. Lazard also seemed concerned that the Turks who had been dispatched to investigate previously had disappeared. Which, come to think of it, was also disconcerting. Turks were not pushovers.

The second-class sighed, leaning his head back against his seat. At least he'd get a chance to see his mentor's hometown and the dumbapples Angeal had told him about while they were waiting to attack Fort Tamblin.

* * *

><p>Shortly after landing Zack and Tseng were attacked by a pair of the weird, animalistic SOLDIERs he'd first seen in Wutai, the ones Sephiroth had called 'Dead Men'. When Zack had asked why the Silver General had explained that all three of the SOLDIERs whose bodies they'd found had been reported among the casualties of the Wutai war between two and five years previously. The very <em>recently<em> killed men had been among those reported KIA rather than MIA and had supposedly been long dead. Zack had had difficulty suppressing the urge to crack a zombie joke.

Defeating the two SOLDIERs was pretty easy, but destroying the robot accompanying them had been considerably harder. After the fight was over and the machine trashed Tseng identified it as having been stolen from the science department. The second-class personally thought murderous robots were more Scarlet's thing than Hojo's; he'd spent the past month since getting back from Wutai going on missions for the science department. He'd had to go all over the planet killing rampaging monsters and chasing down rumours of newly emerged species. He'd got a lot of new items for Materia Fusion for his efforts but rather than use them himself he'd chosen to sell them to his fellow SOLDIERs: Cloud had spoiled him for manufactured Materia and he only used natural ones now. Zack had found the little shop down in Sector Seven of the slums that sold natural Materia and totally made the owner's day by buying half his stock with the money he'd made selling the spoils of his missions.

The new Materia were fun to play with: he'd already got himself an MP Plus and an HP Plus while on a mission in Mideel -Shiva those had been expensive- so he had treated himself to two new Elemental Materia, a Seal and a Poison. He'd also been fortunate enough to find a Slash-All in the Materia cave in Nibelhiem Cloud had told him about when he did a couple of missions up there. The chocobo-blond had also been dead-on the money when he warned Zack that the fauna around his home village was nasty. These purchases and discoveries had brought his Materia arsenal up to thirteen with his Fire, Cure, Barrier, Sense, the Elemental he'd had already and the Throw Cloud had given him that had kick-started the new trend. Not even one of them was mastered yet but the second-class was getting there.

* * *

><p>As Tseng led the way through the surprisingly silent village of Banora towards the fanciest house they could see Zack had to dispatch another three Dead Men Walking, which led to Tseng asking why he'd called them that. The second-class repeated the explanation Sephiroth had given him, which got a long and thoughtful silence out of the Turk.<p>

The house had a fresh grave outside it under a nearby tree, which Tseng investigated while Zack checked the building's interior. It didn't take the SOLDIER long: it was completely deserted and even the cupboards had been stripped bare of food and supplies. Wandering back outside, Zack learnt that the grave contained the bodies of Genesis' parents. The idea that the Crimson General had killed his own father and mother was deeply disturbing, making Zack seriously wonder about the implications of Cloud's belief that Genesis had been rescuing his younger siblings from a lab. If that was the case, had Genesis' parents just handed over their younger children to the ShinRa science department?

Seeing that visiting Genesis' house had been unproductive, Tseng suggested Zack find Angeal's home and see if he was in. The second-class did find the right house, but the only person there was the Dark General's mother, Gillian Hewley.

The visit with Angeal's mother was both a little awkward and fairly uninformative. Zack suffered the indignity of having a total stranger call him a puppy and learnt right off that Angeal had written home and told his mother that his student had absolutely no attention span. Next he found out that, while Angeal had been there and was certainly in the area somewhere, he wasn't in right now. His massive sword was, though: Gillian Hewley described the Buster Blade as being 'the symbol of our family honour', which meshed with what Angeal had told him about it. More unpleasantly, she told Zack that Genesis had killed off the rest of the villagers. The SOLDIER recommended that she leave Banora for her own safety, but Gillian assured the second-class that Genesis wouldn't kill her. Zack's final observation on leaving the house was that Angeal looked quite a lot like his mother, though the Dark General had never seemed to be as passive as his mother was.

Walking across the village square, Zack found Tseng again and the two made their way to the only building in the area yet to be explored: the Banora apple juice factory.

* * *

><p>Zack had not been expecting to find Genesis in the back of the factory. The Crimson General was lounging on the floor under a window and reading LOVELESS out loud to a fifteen-year-old girl with deep red hair, an equally red SOLDIER-style uniform with the trousers tucked into black knee boots and a slightly softer and more feminine version of Genesis' face.<p>

"Aren't you a noisy one, Zack the puppy," Genesis said languidly, closing his book and putting it away inside his coat. The girl leaning over the General's shoulder giggled at the nickname, her girlish glee in stark contrast to the wary way her eyes never strayed from Zack's centre of mass. She was expecting to be attacked; it was oddly disheartening to be seen as a threat by a cute girl.

Tseng, having heard the conversation, dashed into the back room area where Zack had found the two fugitives and went over to the large, old-fashioned Mako tank set up by one wall. It contained another of the oddly dressed Dead Men. The Turk then accused Genesis of killing the two of his subordinates who had been investigating in the village. The Crimson General waved off the accusation calmly, insinuating that Tseng was misinformed. Zack then berated Genesis for having murdered his parents, which got more of a reaction: The Crimson General rose to his feet, the girl moving to hide behind him as her eyes flicked from the Turk to Zack and back again as her fingers twitched at her right hip.

Genesis coolly informed his accusers that 'those two' had betrayed him one time too many, then angrily blasted Tseng with a fire spell.

Zack instantly drew his sword but had it wrenched from his hand by Angeal as the Dark General charged in, placing himself in front of the second-class and facing Genesis and the girl. Genesis immediately smiled at the brunet first-class:

"Hey there, cousin."

Zack's eyes widened as his brain kicked into high gear. Cousin? He'd thought these two were just childhood friends, a rich kid and a poor one in the same village with no other children their age. How on earth could they be related?

Angeal raised Zack's sword defensively and the redheaded General rolled his eyes. "I'm not about to kill your puppy, Angeal. I will understand if this is your final decision -I have known you all my life- but do think it through." The Crimson General wrapped a gentle arm around the shoulders of the girl lurking behind him and gently led her past Angeal and Zack out towards the factory doors: "Are you sure you can live in that kind of world?"

As the girl glanced across at Zack in passing him she met his eyes with a fierce glare for a slip second and the second-class felt like he'd been hit around the head with a sledgehammer. She was gorgeous! Timid as a wild chocobo and fierce as a griffon all in a very shapely red package. He'd never seen a girl like her before in his life.

The second-class shook off his stupor as Angeal lowered Zack's sword. "Angeal-"

The Dark General did not say a word, shoving Zack roughly across the room and embedding the sword in the factory floor before turning his back and stalking away.

* * *

><p>Poor, poor Zack. He's having his head messed with by people who should know better. Plus, Rosso makes her debut! On a more practical note, I <em>love<em> that YouTube has the story-bits of Crisis Core! It makes plotting so much easier.

Yes, it is indeed an 'evil' cliffhanger. Review generously and I won't make you wait too long for the second half.


	39. Polarisation

**Polarisation **

After first checking Tseng was still alive and casting Cure on him Zack ran after his mentor through the deserted village. He followed the older SOLDIER's tracks to the Dark General's house and threw open the door, only to freeze on the threshold in shock: Gillian Hewley lay sprawled across the floor, dead. Stumbling further inside, Zack turned to see Angeal standing a little to one side of the doorway, Buster sword in hand, staring down at his mother's corpse with empty eyes.

Zack remembered what Genesis had done to _his_ parents, looked from the corpse on the floor to the drawn sword in Angeal's hand and came to a very upsetting conclusion. He lunged at his mentor, grabbing the front of the older man's uniform and slamming him into the wall:

"How could you do that? How the hell could you have even considered doing that? What is wrong with you? Why?"

Angeal did not fight back at all, further convincing Zack of the Dark General's guilt. With a roar of rage and hurt he yanked his mentor around and punched him in the face, launching him out of the cottage to land on his back in the dust.

"Is this what your damn honour is about?" Zack screamed. It _hurt_ to see how far his beloved mentor had fallen.

Angeal slowly climbed back to his feet. "My mother no longer had anything left to live for," he said flatly, "and I feel much as she did."

"What is that supposed to mean? Explain yourself!" Zack screamed from the doorway.

"Didn't I tell you already?" Genesis said, stepping into view on the left-hand side of the door frame. "He can't live that way anymore."

Across the dirt from the front of the cottage, next to one of the irrigation windmills, Angeal slung the Buster sword onto its usual place on his back and trudged away, steps heavy. Zack tried to run after his mentor but Genesis stuck out a foot, sending the second-class sprawling on his face in the dirt.

"Angeal!" Zack shouted desperately. He _needed_ to know why this was happening? Why was he being abandoned?

"_My friend, do you fly away now?_" Genesis quoted with a half-smile as Angeal vanished out of sight between the buildings of the tiny village. "_To a world that abhors you and I?_"

"Shut up!" Zack yelled at the Crimson General.

"_All that awaits you is a sombre morrow-_" Genesis went on undeterred, stepping away from the wall of the cottage towards Zack and coincidentally moving in front of the fifteen-year-old in the pseudo-SOLDIER uniform who was still following at the General's heels.

"I said shut up!" Zack shouted over the quote, scrambling to his feet. Angeal was _leaving_ and Genesis was reciting LOVELESS at him!

"_-no matter where the winds may blow._" the Crimson General finished, waving a gloved hand theatrically with a patronising smirk on his face. "It seems Sephiroth didn't come," the redhead went on, a spell coalescing around his left hand. "I wonder why that is?"

Zack barely had a chance to recognise the Spell as a summons before light flared and Bahamut was bearing down on him.

* * *

><p>The next ten minutes were very sticky indeed; Zack had lost a fight against Ifrit, a much weaker summon, just six weeks ago and had needed to be rescued by Sephiroth. The second-class frantically cast spells at the dragon, inordinately grateful for the new Materia he had equipped boosting his stats and that natural Materia really did cast Spells faster. In the end the SOLDIER had to pull out a Limit Break to win the confrontation, using a Chain Slash to finish off the summons.<p>

"What the hell was that about, attacking me with a summons!" Zack yelled as soon as Bahamut dissipated. "Where's your SOLDIER honour?"

Genesis turned away so that his back faced Zack, the girl standing in front of the General and sneaking glimpses over his shoulder at the second-class. "We are not SOLDIERs any longer;" the Crimson General said softly as a truly massive pair of black wings sprouted from the back of his his shoulders, "only monsters have these. We no longer have dreams or honour. Rosso, come."

The girl stepped closer and Genesis wrapped his arms around her and leapt skywards, vanishing into the distance with the fifteen-year-old -was Rosso her name?- in his arms, leaving behind only a flurry of feathers to mark his passing. Zack caught one of them, turning it over between his fingers. There were a lot of griffins around Gonaga, the second-class' own home town, and they had feathers like this.

"SOLDIERS are _not_ monsters," he muttered to himself, wishing he sounded more convincing. Genesis had wings and Seph had claws and cat eyes; was Angeal hiding something similar? Would more SOLDIERs be going through changes like those?

His PHS rang, jerking him from his reverie. Startled, Zack dropped the feather and fished the phone out of a pocket. "Hello?"

"Zack." It was Tseng; apparently he'd recovered. "ShinRa had originally intended to bomb Banora to hide the evidence of Genesis' presence here, but it turned out that the apple orchards belong to a very wealthy land owning family who objected to billions of gil's worth of lost revenue and pressured the company into refraining. Instead the Security Department is flying in a squad of demolition specialists to bring down all the man-made structures. Get to the edge of the village so I can order the helicopter to collect you."

"Coming," Zack sighed, hurrying off back the way he'd come this morning. Today had not been a good day. Other than getting to see the loveliest girl ever, that is; that she was probably Genesis' little sister was definitely another of the day's low points.

As the helicopter touched down Zack turned to look at the arching dumbapple trees one last time; there was almost zero chance of him getting sent out here on a mission again, ever.

* * *

><p>Shortly after Zack's return to Midgar ShinRa in its dubious wisdom declared General Genesis Rhapsodos and General Angeal Hewley killed in action. The second-class didn't really care; he knew it was a lie, a coverup to hide from the public the unpleasant reality that two of the company's top SOLDIERs had deserted.<p>

Zack himself spent most of the next two months chasing Genesis' army of Dead Men all across the planet, killing hundreds of animalistic SOLDIERs, a small number of more human ones and wrecking dozens of stolen ShinRa machines. Many of the Dead Men were on closer examination not reported KIA SOLDIERS but former Security Forces, auxiliaries -of both genders- and military police. It seemed that the actual ShinRa casualties in the Wutai war had only been half of what had actually been reported, if that. It depressed Zack that all these people had been spirited away from the battlefields and turned into mindless monsters.

The second-class still wasn't sure if he believed Genesis was a monster or not. The Crimson General had certainly behaved cruelly towards Zack and Tseng in Banora but he'd never once stopped protecting the girl with him. Rosso, he'd called her. Zack had been unable to put her out of his mind. She was beautiful and skittish and fierce and he was hoping desperately he'd get a chance to see her again.

Which really, really did _not_ help resolve his inner confusion. Zack wished he could talk to Cloud about it, but the chocobo-blond was still out on the front in Wutai -though not for much longer if Kunsel was right- and he really didn't feel like explaining the situation over a phonecall.

* * *

><p>The second half of the Banora confrontation, as seen by Zackary Fair. So many easily solved problems arise out of a lack of communication. On a lighter note, did anyone else notice that all of Zack's canon crushes are redheads?<p> 


	40. Hidden Variables

Two hundred reviews! You guys totally rock! **  
><strong>

**Hidden Variables**

Weiss Valentine sat halfway up a tree, idly swinging his feet back and forth, eyes closed as he soaked up the feeling of sunlight on his face and the way the wind ruffled his spiky white hair. Forty-six days ago he had been a prisoner and a test subject, unable to even protect himself, let alone his precious siblings. Now however he was free. Free to see the sky, free to try new foods and wear new clothes, free from painful injections, countless tests, the whims of the Restrictors and being forced to kill fellow prisoners. Genesis, his older brother, had rescued them all, invading Deepground, slaughtering every single Restrictor and evacuating every last prisoner and test subject in the complex. But even though everyone had been rescued only he, Rosso and Nero had been allowed to go with the Crimson General when he left. Everyone else had been divided up into squads and placed under the command of Genesis' renegade SOLDIER following and some of the newer, saner, test subjects.

Genesis had said that Weiss and his two siblings were part of his family, so they should all stay with him and get to meet the others. They hadn't met everyone yet -General Sephiroth had yet to make an appearance, as did the 'Cloud' they all talked about at times- but the ones they had met were, well... odd. Not bad, just different to what Weiss was used to.

First there was Genesis himself, bright, loud and charismatic. The Crimson General loved to be at the centre of attention but Weiss had learnt that he had a hidden side to him as well which emerged only in private, such as after he had slain his foster parents. The white-haired teen had lain on the roof of their farmhouse-hideout and listened as his big brother screamed, threw things, ranted and finally cried. The ranting had been fairly informative: Genesis' foster parents had been embezzling his inheritance, siphoning off Valentine money. The entire village of Banora belonged to the collective Valentine family and Genesis' biological father had entrusted its management to the General's foster parents so he would be properly provided for both as a child and when he reached adulthood. Unfortunately Genesis' careers had preferred to keep the money for private ventures rather than invest in the well-being of the village; Banora didn't even have a general store. Even worse, Genesis had never been told -as was his right- that he owned the village and had a massive amount of gil at his disposal.

But what actually set off the Crimson General's powder-keg of a temper was that his foster parents, the people who had raised him, had tried to report Rosso to ShinRa on the pretext that she was 'a bad influence'. That, Weiss deduced, was the real reason he'd killed them rather than just arranged for Vincent to abduct, bribe, drug and rehouse them like the highly capable Turk had done to the rest of the civilians. The only reason his new cousin hadn't done that for Angeal's mother was that her JENOVA cells made it impossible. The white-haired former Deepgrounder decided Genesis' foster parents had deserved their deaths, shrugged off what he had learned and forgot about it.

* * *

><p>Weiss was glad Genesis was protecting Rosso; his lively older sister had been getting increasingly fragile over the past year in Deepground and after the rescue had stuck to Genesis' heels like glue, only leaving his side for important private meetings or to do 'girl things' with little Shelke. Weiss had learned that Rosso loved staring up at the blue bowl of the sky, loved LOVELESS, especially when Genesis read it to her, loved eating the purple dumbapples their big brother had introduced them all to and more then anything else loved to fly. She begged and coaxed a ride out of Genesis at least once a day, whooping and laughing as he looped the loop, dived and soared with her in his arms. Weiss thought his big brother ran extra risks flying with her because he loved the attention she showered on him.<p>

All Rosso's new likes were very newly discovered and she never wasted a chance to try any of them, which generally required she dog her older brother's heels all hours of the day. Genesis didn't seem to mind, taking the teenager on flights when there was nothing else that needed doing, picking apples with her and reading or reciting bits of LOVELESS to her. Weiss knew his sister needed the attention to stabilise her but he still -selfishly- wished he could spend as much time as she did with their older brother.

Weiss also missed Nero's constant company; his black-haired, red-eyed little brother had been instantly drawn to their cousin Vincent, the presumed-dead Turk who was actually a woman. Initially Nero had been fascinated by their strikingly similar colouring, then he had discovered that his peculiar dark powers were derived from Chaos, the enigmatic being imprisoned within their cousin's flesh. Chaos had offered to teach 'little shade' how to use and control his powers properly and the thirteen-year-old had not hesitated for long before accepting. As a result Nero spent most of his time either with Vincent or practising on his own. Weiss had noticed how much in common his baby brother had with the Turk, far more than just their colouring: both were sharpshooters, though Nero was only starting to learn, both were quiet, deep and slow to anger, both were inclined towards minimalism rather than the flamboyance both Genesis and Rosso enjoyed and both were fiercely, viciously protective.

The white-haired fourteen-year-old had witnessed the degree of Vincent's protective streak first-hand: he'd been sprawled out on the dirt floor of the farthest barn one afternoon, watching ants. The tiny insects fascinated him, so simple yet so highly organised. He'd been totally absorbed when a faint, choking gurgle reached his ears. Looking up and across to the half-open sliding door he's seen his red-eyed cousin coolly garotting a struggling Turk that the teen belatedly realised must have been watching him. Weiss was no stranger to death -he'd killed and seen people die all his life- but that afternoon had been the first time anyone had ever killed in cold blood for him personally. Vincent's calm dispatching of the snooper and speedy disposal of the blue-suited corpse had given Weiss a strange warm feeling of safety in his gut. That his cousin had been watching out for him in spite of her other responsibilities helped temper his jealousy of Nero's special treatment. After all, his little brother _needed_ to learn control; Weiss did not.

* * *

><p>As his siblings were mainly too busy with their own projects to seek him out Weiss spent most of his time -unless he wanted to be alone- with Shelke, the little girl who had almost become a Deepgrounder. The nine-year-old knew a great deal about people and the planet in general and was very mature for her age, which she explained was a result of borrowing memories from Cloud, the boy who had rescued her. Weiss asked her hundreds of questions about absolutely everything, totally unashamed of his ignorance and hunger for knowledge, and repaid her diligent explanations with combat lessons and absolutely everything he'd ever tried or heard of being done when Synaptic Net Diving. That last subject was their common ground, one that was often returned to and discussed in minute detail. The littlest redhead was weak and slow in a fight compared to the rest of the Mako-enhanced family but her technique was improving and her Materia skills were adequate.<p>

Weiss spent hours at a time just listening to her describe the slums of Midgar, fixing the details in his mind just in case he ever ended up there. Her memories of the rest of the Planet were second-hand, but they were still repeated, dissected and memorised for later. Knowledge was power. The teen knew they all owed Shelke; the nine-year-old had fried the control chip in his head so that the auxiliary field surgeon rescued from the labs could extract it safely. There had been a remote-operated suicide switch on the foul thing and having a slowly healing slot in his skull and staples in his scalp for a week was a small price to pay for genuine freedom.

The only relative neither he nor his siblings got along with was their cousin Angeal. The Dark General was quiet and conflicted, rarely talked to them and his facial expressions were often at odds with his words and tone. As a result Weiss avoided him whenever possible and he suspected his sister and younger brother did the same. The brunet SOLDIER had several long, occasionally heated talks with his older sister Vincent and visited his mother on various occasions, but he always seemed less at peace with himself after returning from the village. Weiss had eventually approached Vincent in private to ask about the Dark General; he needed to know if Angeal was a threat to his siblings or not.

Vincent had led Weiss out of the house and a good distance away across a field before explaining things. "Weiss, little light, Angeal is struggling to reconcile two very different value systems," his red-eyed avatar of a cousin said with a sigh. "His mother has trained him all his life to behave honourably, to not shame his family, to uphold his dreams and SOLDIER duties to the bitter end. Then he discovered that he had another family, his father's family, who have a very different set of values to follow. Valentines are much more pragmatic: we put family before everything else. If in doubt, protect those you love and let the rest go hang. Angeal feels the need to follow those values as he sees himself as a Valentine as much as a Hewley but the two systems conflict.

"Worse, he has learnt that the so-called 'SOLDIER values' he has worked so hard to follow are not being upheld by the company, which instead prefers to abuse and exploit those who follow the rules. The rest of us Valentines are adapting to our new situation much more easily as we are willing to forsake honour to get things done. Angeal can't; he has spent too much of his life on his current path to simply abandon it now. It defines him as a person. However the conflict will continue to eat away at him until he makes his choice and defines his own path, whatever that may be."

"Can't you just tell him which one he should pick?" It seemed obvious to Weiss which set of values worked better. Angeal's brand of honour just got you walked over by people like President Shinra, bastard that he was.

"Part of being free is the right to choose for yourself what to do with your life, which goes hand in hand with taking responsibility for your mistakes and learning from them," Vincent informed him calmly, "which is why I warned you about the perils of climbing trees rather than forbidding you from doing it."

It had been very good advice, Weiss now really _did_ know; he would never have guessed how very different it was climbing living things rather than concrete and steel. He;d retreated to the orchard after Angeal marched through the farmhouse-hideout and quietly locked himself in his room almost an hour ago. Vincent had let the brooding General be until Genesis got back with Rosso and told the Turk what had happened. Vincent had listened, asking for clarification once or twice, then gone and broken down Angeal's door and deliberately and calmly provoked the Dark General into completely losing his composure. The shouting and flying fists had been very impressive, but not as impressive as his red-eyed cousin's dodging skills. Weiss had only retreated to the branches of a tree once Angeal stopped fighting and started to cry.

Freedom, it would seem, was more difficult than it looked.

* * *

><p>Weiss, because he is cool. Plus, insight! I hope this clears up some of the emotional morass that was the previous two chapters.<p>

This is going up early as I have to go out early -GMT time- and can't put it up later.


	41. Quantum Nonlocality

**Quantum Nonlocality**

Tseng had been rather unsettled by the past few month's events. The Turks were aware of Project G and considering the implications of degradation Genesis' and Angeal's desertions were not as surprising as they should have been, but the Deepground connection disturbed him. Hollander had not been in the loop for the project and how Genesis had stumbled across it was a mystery. That the Crimson General had not only _found_ the project, but gotten in, totally obliterated the infrastructure, killed off every last guard and successfully escaped with the test subjects without leaving a single living witness behind indicated that frighteningly large amounts of highly sensitive information had been haemorrhaging from the company for some time.

Genesis' choice of strategy made excellent use of his barely-sane forces: the feral SOLDIERs were released into an area, harrying civilians and ShinRa operatives alike and attracting attention while the saner Deepgrounders and the defectors who had followed Genesis from Wutai slipped into the target area, stole everything not nailed down and melted away again. The stolen goods was highly varied, from foodstuffs through weaponry to medical Mako, indicating an organised logistical mind with an eye on the long-term. The Crimson General was a genius commander of men; Tseng would rather not be forced to meet the man on the battlefield once the redhead's strategy had come to fruition.

The Turk had only been informed of the bare bones of what Deepground had been, but what little data he had indicated that nine-tenths of the SOLDIERs who had not survived the project capable of rational thought had by now been killed. Of those judged sane and Genesis' fellow deserters only five had died, three killed by second-class Zackary Fair, who had taken the brunt of those missions by virtue of already being in the loop on what had really happened. The spiky-haired brunet was getting the look of someone seriously disillusioned by their life experiences, no longer bouncing cheerfully around Headquarters. Instead the SOLDIER trained hard and drifted around the building under a cloud of suppressed gloom when he wasn't on missions.

A cloud. That reminded him: Third-class Cloud Strife was a puzzle. Maybe not a problem, but the potential was there, lurking under the surface like a Midgar zolom in a swamp.

Tseng was rather embarrassed to admit that the Turks hadn't spotted the connection between the blond SOLDIER and the supposedly deceased Vincent Valentine until last month. The oversight was mortifying considering the sheer volume of evidence available: there had been a recognisable photograph of the two of them in the newspapers after they broke the bank in Golden Saucer, even! The duo had travelled all over the planet for almost four years! How the information could have taken six months to surface was unforgivable; they were Turks, damnit!

The second-in-command sighed. Now the teen was in the SOLDIER program with the full third-class Mako boost, Sephiroth's student and practically untouchable. Not that the Turk was tempted to pressure the boy: anyone who had spent their formative years training under the greatest Turk the Company had ever seen would be so easy to manipulate or dispatch. The Mako would only enhance the blond's already formidable skills. Tseng had read the SOLDIER's reviews: his growth rate was nothing short of phenomenal. In a few years he would be a first-class on par with Sephiroth himself if he kept it up.

What was even more embarrassing was that the Turks had stumbled across Cloud's past entirely by accident whilst investigating Lillith Valentine, Kunsel's Draculina. Veld had overseen that inquiry personally, creating a feasible time-line for those assigned to work from. The young woman was about twenty-four or twenty-five years old, had been raised in the Valentine manor to Turk standards and had started wandering the planet shortly after Vincent's own documented visit to Junon.

Evidence that the most dangerous Turk ever to work for ShinRa was at large had prompted Veld to release more detailed information on his former partner to the department. What sent shivers down the half-Wutaian's spine was that Vincent was not just the sharpshooter his official file suggested; instead the rogue Turk specialised in accidents. Generally tragically fatal accidents. He'd single-handedly wiped out the industrial competition to the ShinRa monopoly over twenty-five years ago over the span of just eighteen months. After learning _that_ Tseng had ordered Maria, the efficient blonde whose main weapon was a handgun, to go through the last five years' worth of incident reports to see if the man had been active more recently.

There had been a whole slew of possibles but one instance really stuck out: thirteen months previously the eight Turks assigned to enforce and supervise disgraced Turk Avro's house arrest in Costa del Sol had been the victims of a sudden spate of messy, inconvenient and almost-fatal mishaps that had caused them to lose track of their charge for almost four hours. Looking over the mission report again Tseng could see Vincent's fingerprints all over the incident. What Veld was dispatching the tilak-marked Turk to Costa del Sol to find out was why the elder Valentine had bothered at all. What had the rogue Turk wanted from disgraced Avro Lancaster, the 'Death God of the Battlefield', that had required three-and-three-quarter hours of anonymity?

* * *

><p>Late that evening Tseng flew back to Midgar, thoughts swirling erratically. Turk Avro had not been interesting in coming back on active duty to help stamp out the Wutai insurgents and saboteurs wreaking havoc for ShinRa now the war's end was officially being arranged, but had been perfectly willing to chat about his 'perfect day', as the strawberry blond bomber had designated the occasion his stalkers had been put out of commission.<p>

Avro had indeed been approached by Vincent, who had wanted information, mainly on the backgrounds and affiliations of the various people -dead and still living- the bomber had worked with before joining ShinRa. In exchange for the aforementioned information the red-eyed rogue had offered the disgraced Turk a favour and suggested among other things the possibility of making his watchers disappear for a few hours. Entertained by the idea Avro had agreed, which set off the whole sorry mess that started six hours later.

Tseng had asked Avro what he'd done with his brief freedom. The other man had grinned like a loon:

"I took Vincent's apprentice shopping."

"Pardon?" Tseng had heard himself say.

"Vincent's apprentice. Cloud Strife. Probably fourteen by now, short, blue eyes, golden hair like a chocobo's crest. Knows a hell of a lot about chocobo racing and boardroom drama, listens well and remembers what he's been told. I bought him a few Materia, some ice cream and sufficient supplies for him to make enough explosives to bring down the ShinRa tower if he wired it right."

"You bought a thirteen-year-old bomb ingredients?" Tseng couldn't help repeating incredulously. Avro just shrugged.

"He was a good kid. Really good. Polite, accepting, not afraid to have fun and responsible." the man paused. "You've met him, haven't you? Little Cloudy?"

"He's in SOLDIER," the half-Wutaian admitted heavily. "General Sephiroth's protégé."

The bomber cackled. "Kid's a Turk to the bone despite being too honourable for his own good. All that covert training _and_ Mako? He'll be unstoppable in a few years; less since the Silver General's taken a shine to him." Avro had paused then, turning around to look Tseng in the eye. "Free advice, Turk to Turk: Don't ever make an enemy of him. Strife's got nerves of ice, more determination than a damned army, a thick streak of luck, a dollop of crazy and a spine of pure Mako-reinforced titanium. He's also got an unforgiving temper, is more stubborn than Mount Nibel and completely, insanely loyal to those he's chosen to protect. You do not want someone like that pissed at you, believe me; people like that don't stop."

Tseng wanted to ask where the man had found all that information but the look in Avro's eye dissuaded him. The bomber had been interested enough in Cloud to dig a little and this was the final, refined result of what the Turk had found.

The very idea of Cloud Strife now made Tseng very, very uneasy. There was a reason why the Turks operated separately to SOLDIER and removed those suited to the Investigative Division of Internal Affairs from cadet training. Trained by Vincent Valentine for four years, Cloud was a Turk in essence if not in fact and now he was a SOLDIER as well. Tseng would have to watch the teen closely and figure out what his agenda was. Everybody had an agenda; however so long as Cloud's did not go counter to Tseng's orders the blond would be left mostly alone.

* * *

><p>Tseng, because he needs more time on air. He deserves it for all the crap he's being forced to deal with.<p>

Avro Lancaster is 'Legend' from Before Crisis. I named him for the infamous aircraft. Maria is 'Gun', also from Before Crisis and Elena's big sister.

The reason the Turks didn't put the pieces together sooner was that Vincent fiddled their computers to ignore both her and Cloud. Note also that Veld hasn't told his minions everything there is to know about dear Vincent yet.


	42. Tangency Point

**Tangency Point**

Cloud was totally exhausted. The war in Wutai was finally properly over in spite of all the wild-eyed fanatics trying to infiltrate Midgar to stage a last stand, so Sephiroth -and therefore Cloud as well- had finally been allowed to return home. The blond had no idea however where his General was at the moment: Cloud had been accosted as soon as he got off the Gelnika by his Mako technician, escorted to the Simulation room and ordered to fight off illusory monsters without even getting his lunch first. He'd been in there for five hours, powering through test after simulation. Cloud really didn't like training in the virtual reality generator as the monsters created didn't ping his sixth sense until the very last moment, forcing him to dodge faster and keep a much closer eye on his surroundings than was the case in real life.

When he was finally allowed out Cloud had been unnerved to find Hojo outside the Simulation room talking to the technician. All the blond had heard was the tail-end of the professor's spiel, but even just that had made his skin crawl:

"... very promising indeed; he proved worthy of my greatest work's attention. Alert me when he is awarded promotion to second-class."

Cloud knew that Hojo's 'greatest work' was Sephiroth and made a mental note then and there to put tabs on Hojo's files just in case the amoral scientist decided that Cloud would be a handy test subject for a new project. Chaos had assured the blond he was JENOVA-proof, but that didn't mean he wanted to spend a week in bed vomiting black goop after having the latent Chaos potential the WEAPON had laced his DNA with activate prematurely.

After Cloud had discovered Vincent was female she'd been slid out of his father-figure slot and gradually replaced by Chaos himself, which had resulted in the quasi-summon demanding to adopt him. The procedure had happened after his last Mako shot; Chaos had infiltrated his bedroom in Wutai and done _something_. What, the blond had no idea: Chaos swore up and down that what he had done was not harmful, would not involve any extra limbs appearing out of the blue, would take several decades to fully activate and would not change who he was as a person in the slightest. Vincent hadn't been happy -Chaos had snuck out while she was sleeping- but Cloud had calmed her down eventually. Chaos was, well, unpredictable was understating it, but he _did_ care.

Putting his new stepfather aside in his mind as the technician gave him the heartening news that he wouldn't have to see another scientist for six months, Cloud set about going home. While he did have a room in one of the four-bedroom apartments all the third-classes shared with their peers, on this occasion the blond decided he preferred to crash in the apartment Vincent owned right on the edge on the Plate in Sector One, chosen for its balcony over the massive drop that doubled as a landing spot for Chaos and any other winged visitors. Going there would also give him a chance to ditch his blue-suited tail: the curly-headed blond Turk with the nuchaku was a newbie and easily spotted, but Cloud knew that his more discreet watcher was none other than Seto, his own first swordsmanship teacher. He'd been expecting the quiet, bespectacled man to approach him asking for a spar for ages.

Losing the distracted blond would be easy; Seto however would have to be removed with considerably more care.

With all this in mind Cloud wasn't really paying attention to where he was going and walked right into someone whilst turning a corner.

"Watch it, SOLDIER," said a familiar voice. Cloud looked up through the visor of his helmet to see Zack, himself looking rather distracted. Very distracted to have missed the highly distinctive sword hilt protruding over the third-class' shoulder and how short the younger SOLDIER was.

"Hi there, Zack," Cloud said happily, removing his helmet. "It's been a while."

"Spiky?" the second-class blurted out. "Shiva it's good to see you! When did you get back?"

"Late this morning; I had my post-Mako evaluation over lunch," the blond explained. Zack looked very unhappy underneath his thin mask of determined cheer; Cloud couldn't leave his friend to suffer like that when he suspected he knew what the problem was. "How about we go for food and you tell me what I missed while I was getting dragged thither and yon all over Wutai by his Generalship hunting down ninja?"

Zack's eyes lit up with genuine pleasure. "Great idea! Not the canteen though; the food's been crap lately. I could cook-"

"No," Cloud interrupted firmly, "I'll cook if one of us has to; I know better than to allow you within ten feet of a stove unless field rations are involved!"

The second-class laughed, wrapping an arm around the blond's shoulders and ruffling his hair with his other hand. "Shiva I've missed you, Spiky. Kunsel's missing his girlfriend when he isn't dashing out early to take her on a date, everyone's on missions at all hours and I haven't had a decent conversation in months. Months, I tell you! Any longer and I would have gone looking for Tseng!"

"How about we go get takeout and you give me the lowdown," Cloud suggested, letting Zack sweep him off towards the elevators. The blond generally preferred to take the stairs, but Zack loved the glass lifts. "I'll trade you stories from the former front for the latest company gossip and corporate stupidity."

"Great! Were you in Wutai -the town I mean- for the peace treaty?" Zack asked as they entered the lift. Cloud sensed rather than saw his Turk stalkers heading for the stairs; he would have to lose them completely in order to have a proper heart-to-heart with Angeal's protégé.

"Seph had to go and he dragged me along so he didn't have to suffer alone," Cloud answered as the glass doors slid closed. "It wasn't all bad: I got to meet Lord Gordo's daughter, who has the worst case of sticky fingers I've ever seen. A superb escape artist as well, for all she's only nine."

"Hey, I might have met her in Fort Tamblin: Yuffie Kisaragi, 'Wutai's greatest warrior'?"

Cloud chuckled. "That's her. I told her I was an environmental activist infiltrating the company to bring it down from the inside and won a lifelong admirer."

* * *

><p>Instead of letting Zack drag him to the second-class' own tiny apartment in the official ShinRa residence halls after they'd bought wutaian takeaway, Cloud steered his dark-haired friend out towards Vincent's place on the edge of the Plate. As they wandered down alleys and across roads the blond palmed his Seal Materia and surreptitiously cast Sleep at Seto who was shadowing them across the rooftops. 'Take out the backup first' was one of the Turk maxims Vincent had drummed into his head; it was after all the backup's job to call for reinforcements if they were overwhelmed. Once Seto was confirmed out for the count Cloud continued on a little further then sped up, jogged around a sharp corner and stopped in the shadows, a finger to his lips. Zack looked perplexed by the blond's erratic behaviour but kept his mouth shut as Cloud armed himself with a Time.<p>

As the soft sound of expensive shoes on tarmac drew closer the Turk-trained SOLDIER tensed, ears working overtime. Give it a few more seconds...

The blond Turk was hit by the Stop spell before he even noticed Cloud was there, toppling forwards on the asphalt as stiff as a board. Then the two SOLDIERs ran for it.

"Spiky?" Zack asked once they were far enough away to safely slow down a bit, "Why do you have Turks after you?"

"I am too interesting for my own good," Cloud replied glumly. "Come on; I'll tell you all about it when we get home."

"You'd better," Zack said firmly, "I'm sick and tired of being left in the dark."

"Let's keep moving then; we don't want the food to get cold, do we?"

They reached the apartment without running into any more Turks, which was a relief. It had been a test rather than real surveillance, Cloud decided. The next step in this particular game would involve getting approached by someone further up the ladder -potentially Tseng, the Turk Zack had gone on that high-level mission with- who he would politely exchange threats with and compare agendas.

Once they were safely inside Zack turned around and stood in the middle of the living room, arms folded across his chest.

"Talk, Spiky," the second-class said, voice even and eyes as serious as Cloud had ever seen them. "What the hell is going on with the Generals? Why do you have Turks after you? What's the deal with Genesis' family -the whole story please- and where in Ifrit's burning hells did the supposedly dead feral SOLDIERs come from?"

Cloud dumped the takeout on the coffee table, kicked of his boots and dropped down onto the sofa. "You may as well sit and start your food, Zack: this is going to take a while if I start at the beginning..."

* * *

><p>Cloud returns from Wutai after meeting Yuffie, bumps into Zack, takes out a pair of Turks and prepares to tell all...<p> 


	43. Interpretation

To all of my readers concerned about the sudden drop in update rate, my muse has PMS and refuses to do anything. I haven't even picked up a pencil in three days. Bah. I think the honeymoon is over. Don't worry; I'm not going to put this story aside any time soon.**  
><strong>

**Interpretation**

By the time Cloud finished his almost hour-long monologue Zack had given up even trying to eat his congealing food and was staring blankly at his friend.

"You were practically raised by that Turk Valentine -who happens to be Seph's _mother_ not his girlfriend- who was experimented on by Hojo and doesn't age anymore or need to eat or sleep."

"Yes."

"Seph, Genesis and Angeal were also experimented on, the latter two by Hollander rather than Hojo, which is why Sephiroth has the eyes and the claws while Genesis has wings. Data and evidence of all this is what was on those disks Valentine brought in back in May."

"Yep."

"Which meant they needed confidential medical treatment to stay alive, so Valentine arranged for it to happen without the Science Department finding out."

"Uh-huh."

"Then Genesis found out they'd used his DNA to create kids in a secret lab somewhere, so he defected in order to rescue them alongside all the Dead Men -feral or otherwise- I've had to fight back in January. And the teenager I saw in Banora with Genesis is the oldest of those kids."

"That's right."

"Why did nobody TELL ME?"

Cloud winced. "You're Angeal's student; we all expected him to do it since out of those affected he was closest to you."

Zack scowled. "He said it was too dangerous for me to get involved with." The brunet second-class did not like it at all that his mentor thought him less mature and capable than Cloud was. Okay, so Cloud was very mature for a fourteen-year-old, but Zack wasn't _that_ bad, was he?

"That was not a good idea; what you are unaware of is far more likely to get you killed than what you know might be a problem," the blond third-class said disgustedly. "Then again, Angeal's a mystery to me. I really do not understand how he thinks at all."

Zack paused, thinking about it. "He probably felt that telling me all of this would be an unnecessary burden on my heart, one that would force me to divide my loyalties. That's not true though: I'm a SOLDIER! I can deal with sordid details and make my own choices thank-you very much! I'd much rather have understood the reasons behind his doing a runner back when it happened rather than go through all the crippling uncertainty; the past few months have been hell!"

Cloud looked extremely apologetic as he nervously poked at the chilly remains of his rice.

"Wait a mo'," Zack said abruptly, raising a finger, "Genesis' siblings are technically his kids? Genesis Rhapsodos has teenage children?"

"Genetically speaking they should be considered his offspring but Vincent decided that any children created before the supposed parent was into puberty should be considered siblings," Cloud said. "Plus, There is the issue of degrees of similarity. For example, Sephiroth is similar enough to Vincent genetically to be her almost-identical twin brother in spite of the age difference. Similarly, Rosso is practically Genesis' twin -however much younger she is- while Weiss is the Crimson General's son and Nero is an almost even mix of Genesis, Vincent and the woman who gave birth to him."

"That is so _weird_."

The Turk-raised blond smirked. "You like Rosso, don't you."

"Wha? I, er, well," Zack stammered. The undeniable truth that he was completely smitten with a girl who was the infamously temperamental Crimson General's younger sister was not something he really wanted to look into the consequences of just yet. He liked living and if Genesis got wind of his intentions that state of affairs was unlikely to continue.

"I haven't met her yet but we've talked on the phone," Cloud went on, a wicked gleam in his eye that just confirmed to the second-class' mind that his blond friend had been raised by a blue-suit, "She had all sorts of questions about the SOLDIER who was in Banora. She thought he was cute and needed someone to talk to about it since Angeal was off on his own and Genesis is not dealing well with his precious baby sister having a crush."

Zack choked. She liked him back? And Genesis _knew_? He was totally screwed. But hey, at least she liked him back! "Have you got her PHS number?"

"She doesn't have a PHS yet; she stole Genesis' phone to make the call," cloud said with a smile. "Really knows her own mind, does Rosso. A bit hesitant now and then, but really, really determined when she sets her heart on something. Total drama queen and a great fighter to boot."

"How do you know that if you've never seen her before?"

Cloud gave the second-class a _look_. "They were in a ShinRa sponsored laboratory, Zack. Scientists document everything and I mean everything. I dug a few videoclips out of the depths of the company mainframe and had a gander. She uses a double-bladed glaive and is quite ridiculously quick with it. Could give you a run for your money very easily despite being two years younger and nearly a foot shorter."

"Snooping around again were you Spiky?" Zack teased, a little relieved to be back on slightly safer ground. The blond grinned at him.

"Now I've told you all the difficult and top-secret stuff that will get you killed if you divulge it to anyone, how about we move on to what I've been missing while out in the wilds of Wutai?"

"Sure thing!" Zack agreed exuberantly, much of his former good cheer restored. "First off was the Banora mission; Kunsel's kinda curious about that since it's a nowhere agricultural town with a massive Mako reactor two miles out. Weird, huh?"

"Sounds like Nibelheim," Cloud joked. "Middle of nowhere, humongous reactor, teeny-tiny village."

Zack snorted. "Yeah, now that you mention it Banora sounds just like Gonaga, too. Well I guess you know about how that fiasco went already, so moving on..."

* * *

><p>So, Zack finds out. Don't think Cloud told him everything, just the mostly relevant bits. This is very short but hopefully the next one will be longer. Stupid body. Stupid hormones.<p> 


	44. Test Conditions

**Test Conditions**

At half-past two in the morning on the last day of February Vincent Valentine was perched on the roof of the Sector Eight Mako reactor, watching the mayhem unfolding in the Sector beneath her with inhumanly keen eyes. AVALANCHE had infiltrated the Sector through the sewer system and was raising hell, seemingly at random. The avatar of Chaos leapt from her perch and hopped down across the rooftops as she caught sight of her target: Amber, a newbie Turk and knife-user on her first day in the field, accompanied by Reno, younger half of Cloud's 'Crazy Redheads'. Her tenant had told her that these two would be leading her to the source of the odd presence she'd been sensing at the edge of her range lately, a presence of summon-like power that was oddly akin to her own.

Chaos had also told her that the true source of that power was the banished summon Zirconiade, who the herald of OMEGA wanted to approach for raw materials for the sword he intended to forge for Cloud. Vincent had decided against even attempting to interfere with that particular project: Chaos was approaching other summons with single-minded determination and successfully persuading them to part with various bits and pieces. He had already conned Odin out of one of his killing blades, obtained a fistful of fangs from Typhoon, Vincent's own preferred summon, a cauldron from Hades and several horns from the Kujata summon he'd found –and later left– out near the Bone Village archaeological dig on the Northern Continent.

While she was out on her own little trips Chaos had also obtained fangs from both Ifrit and Bahamut courtesy of Genesis on a quick visit to the Banora hideout as well as a lock of hair from Shiva, Sephiroth's summon of choice. The herald of OMEGA also had plans involving Ramuh, Titan, Alexander, Phoenix and even the Chocobo summon that was hidden somewhere out near Choco Billy's farm. She had also heard her tenant muttering something about Round Island, but she would have to take Sunshine the gold chocobo to get _there_ and the bird was currently winning obscene amounts of money at Golden Saucer, so that trip was postponed until the end of the racing season.

Vincent had not the faintest idea how Chaos could possibly forge a sword from the disparate bits of summon he was collecting but she knew better that to ask again. She was not stupid in the slightest but her tenant's ramble about resonance, resistance, blessings and WEAPONs had made no sense whatsoever. All the rogue Turk had been able to pick up was that the blade Chaos intended to create would be imbued with the power and intent of the Planet, making it unbreakable and impossible to wield for any save its maker or intended owner. It would also be impossible to lose, just like her son Sephiroth always had Masamune to hand. The blade would have other properties too, but Vincent didn't know what those would be; Chaos didn't seem too sure either on that point, but he wasn't bothered by the uncertainty. He just said it would have '_what the little wolf needs __to flourish_'.

Which led her back to her current situation, chasing Reno and Amber all over Sector Eight and watching them get beaten up by a man she recognised as being AVALANCHE member Shears, waiting for the two Turks to lead her to Zirconiade. Vincent ghosted closer after the terrorist escaped and lurked in a nearby alley as a rather battered Reno answered his PHS:

"Reno speaking, yo."

"This is Veld," Vincent's superhuman hearing picked up from her hiding place. "AVALANCHE is headed for Junon and the operatives plan to assassinate the President. You and Amber will go to Junon and protect President ShinRa from any and all attempts on his life until more reinforcements arrive."

"You got it boss, yo," the scruffy Turk replied, idly twirling his EMR as Amber downed a potion and dusted off her jacket. "Come on Amber," he added as the line went dead and he hung up, "we got a helicopter to catch, yo."

Vincent flitted after the two still slightly battered Turks, keeping to the shadows. She had a helicopter to stow away on.

* * *

><p>After the helicopter landed in Junon Vincent swiftly made her way up to the very top of the recently finished Mako cannon and settled down to wait. She honestly didn't care whether or not President Shinra survived AVALANCHE's assassination attempts, but from her lofty perch it would be easy to home in on the host of the largest fragment of Zirconiade as soon as whoever-it-was drew on the summons' power. Then Chaos would come out, summon Zirconiade forth and beg, bargain or con more sword materials off him. Vincent herself had not the faintest idea how someone could possibly call up a summon from an incomplete Materia, but Chaos said he could do it and the herald of OMEGA never lied to her. Play fast and loose with wording, distract and dissemble, yes, but he never actually said anything that wasn't strictly true.<p>

The rogue Turk _had_ asked her tenant how it was possible, but the quasi-summon had just confused her by saying that the trick to all magic and Spells lay in hitting the right Mako harmonic, which didn't make sense to her at all. Since Vincent currently couldn't be bothered to tease a more coherent explanation out of the herald of OMEGA she just settled down to wait for time to pass as the sun slowly rose higher in the morning sky.

Around noon the Mako cannon was overrun by AVALANCHE operatives, none of whom noticed the black-clad, red-caped avatar perched silently on the very top of the control tower. Not one of this batch of terrorists was the person Chaos was waiting for so Vincent did not bother to interfere with what they were doing, even when they started turning the cannon so it was aimed towards Midgar. If they actually got the point of initiating the firing sequence she would intervene, but not before.

Cocking her head to get a better view of the ground, the red-eyed Turk spotted a very familiar figure standing not far from the tower's base, talking on his PHS: Veld. Vincent had known her old partner had assumed leadership of the Turks shortly after her supposed death but hadn't really seen much of him since getting out of her coffin. Her former lover had aged gracefully and was still an excellent Turk in spite of losing an arm at Kalm back when it was firebombed four years ago. The arm had been replaced with a prosthetic, one that could be armed with Materia, which made Veld very hard to catch unawares. Vincent hoped she would not be forced to reveal herself to her former partner just yet; she knew he'd been married since her own apparent death but he still had a special place in her heart. True, she was currently dating SOLDIER second-class Kunsel as Draculina and starting to fall for the silver-tongued young man of Wutai descent, but Veld had been the only good thing in her life up until Sephiroth. Vincent still missed the easy camaraderie and implicit trust she and her partner had had between them.

_He is talking to the little worm, paradox mine,_ Chaos murmured in her mind. _The little worm desires that our little dragon come to Junon and retake the cannon._

So, President Shinra –who really was a worm to Vincent's way of thinking– was ordering Sephiroth to come and kill the AVALANCHE operatives. Overkill possibly, but would it interfere with Chaos' plans?

_It will not. Our little dragon will draw out the one we seek, enabling me to confront them. Fear not for your little knight, my vessel; __I will not harm him or his minions._

Vincent found it ironic that the herald of OMEGA considered the head of the Turks to be his vessel's knight in shining armour.

A few more hours of patient waiting later Vincent saw Sephiroth enter the Mako cannon's superstructure and sensed the awakening of the odd power-shadow she'd been waiting for. Swiftly descending the outside of the command tower as she sensed the avatar of Zirconiade's clash with her son, Vincent granted control of her body to Chaos, drawing back to watch the inevitable confrontation.

* * *

><p>Dragon-like wings furled, the herald of OMEGA slid through a window, down the open inner frame of the tower and dropped into the fight in progress on the main command floor, pinning the individual he'd been waiting for to the metal walkway. The shield around his target was bypassed completely; Chaos was a greater power than Zirconiade and the feeble protection this thief was using was nothing to him. Across the room the little dragon lowered his blade and the baby Turk his vessel had been shadowing stared at him in shock as she tried to staunch the bleeding from a brutal wound in her leg.<p>

Chaos ignored his audience, attention focused on the woman he'd just captured, she who held within her the master fragment of He who will Burn the World.

"_Gree__tings__ little firefly, vessel of Zirconiade. We have business to discuss, your lord and I._"

* * *

><p>Vincent and a touch of Chaos; Turk Amber is 'Knife' from Before Crisis. Anyone care to guess what will happen next?<p>

Oh, and what do people think of Veld's nickname?


	45. Wave Function Collapse

Body Horror asked about pairings. Well, there's Zack/Rosso and Vincent/Kunsel so far, but I'd rather not reveal the rest yet. It would spoil the story. I do have girls in mind for Seph, Angeal and Genesis, but that's quite a way away.

Well, Genesis will be meeting his lady-love soon but the other two are going to have to wait a while. I'm not sure about Cloud or the other Tsivets yet but I'll get there.

Now, on with the plot!

**Wave Function Collapse**

Sephiroth had not been expecting Chaos to drop into his fight and capture Elfé, the leader of AVALANCHE. For one, the woman was a formidable fighter, almost on his own level. For another she had an impenetrable automatic defence that all his attacks bounced off. It seemed however that the shield was useless against his mother's tenant.

"_Greetings little firefly, vessel of Zirconiade. We have business to discuss, your lord and I_," Chaos informed his captive, his chorus-like voice as affable as his grin was unsettling.

Sephiroth lowered Masamune and waved back the tense and injured Turk sneaking out from behind him. Vincent wouldn't have let Chaos out without good reason and the General seriously doubted the being intended to harm the intriguing leader of AVALANCHE. Terrify, infuriate, trick and exploit, naturally; kill or permanently damage, no. The powerful and driven young woman was causing planet-wide disorder and panic and Chaos had a natural appreciation for people with the guts to do that kind of thing.

"Get off me!" Elfé spat.

"_Not a chance, little firefly,_" Chaos crooned, leaning down to press his seven-foot frame against his prisoner's body. "_He and I have much lost time to make up for and several issues to work out._" The quasi-summon forced Elfé's left hand over her heart, shifted so her legs were firmly trapped between his knees, braced himself on the hand that was pinning her right hand to the floor and _sang_.

Sephiroth had always found the herald of OMEGA's peculiar voice rather pleasing to listen to, but he'd never heard Chaos sing before. The dozen or so layers in his voice all hit the same pure note, shifted apart to a chord then multiplied until there were hundreds of voices singing at least four entirely different tunes, each of which was a work of glorious choral symphony. The Silver General could feel his equipped Materia humming, resonating with the awe-inspiring music as even the Mako in his veins seemed to awaken and respond to the ridiculously complex harmonics that filled his ears and made him feel that much more alive.

As he listened raptly, lost in the beauty of the sound swirling around him, the whole world seemed to stretch and shift for a never-ending moment. Then the two-storey wall behind Chaos and Elfé exploded outwards in a blast of molten metal and an immense, six-armed summon coalesced in the air over Junon.

The music faded away as Chaos shifted himself and his captive around so he could face the new arrival. "_Zirconiade,_" the herald of OMEGA said with a smile. "_It has been too long._"

The alien summon ‒Zirconiade‒ gestured with his arms and made an insect-like shrieking sound not unlike a Kelmelzer.

"_I do indeed want something, Firebug,_" Chaos chuckled, "_and I offer you a favour in return. Just a small one mind you; I do not ask for much after all._"

Zirconiade looked interested, lower pair of arms folding across his stomach and middle pair on hand resting on his hips. The sound the summon made held a tone somewhere between inquiring and irritated.

"_Not much, I assure you. Really, a little more faith. I'm making a sword on commission-_"

Sephiroth just _knew_ somehow that Zirconiade's hiss had meant '_what?_'.

"_It proved necessary, Firebug, and I do not begrudge the necessity,_" Chaos said placatingly, not once loosening his grip on the AVALANCHE leader, who had gotten over her frozen terror and was now trying desperately to escape while staring in horror at the looming summon outside. "_Besides, I believe you will like what I have to offer you in return. Two matched blade rings for a clean and unbreakable bond to your little firefly here,_" he explained, inclining his head towards the struggling Elfé.

Zirconide looked down at Chaos' prisoner, who was trying desperately and futilely to throw off her captor; the herald of OMEGA wasn't even moving. The next insect-like chitter was thoughtful.

"_What did you have in mind then?_" Chaos probed curiously, ignoring the struggling women completely.

The six-armed summon flexed his intricately shaped, elytra-like wings, cracked his knuckles and smirked.

"_Hmm..._"

Sephiroth did not like the sound of that 'hmm'. He'd heard Hojo make that kind of thoughtfully musing hum before inflicting unspeakable agony on a test subject out of sheer curiosity. "Chaos," the Silver General said warningly.

"_You ask that I restrain myself, little dragon? What is your interest in the little firefly?_" Chaos asked, one eyebrow twitching suggestively under the rippling red ribbon-tendrils that swathed his head. Elfé looked torn between wanting to beg for mercy and telling the General she didn't want his pity. She'd also stopped struggling, recognising it was useless.

"She is a worthy enemy," Sephiroth said carefully, "and truly believes her cause is just. I have met very few who are able to match me with a sword." He couldn't mention his mother, the other two Generals or the younger Valentines in front of the Turk leaning against the wall behind him or say that he was intrigued by the fierce young woman who believed so passionately she was protecting the Planet, but hopefully the herald of OMEGA would get the message.

"_True,_" Chaos conceded, "_and my dearest paradox would be most displeased were I to thoughtlessly break or destroy her little knight's only child. So be it; I shall limit myself to that which her mind can assimilate immediately. Zirconiade, your contribution if you would?_"

The two outer serrated, bone-like hooks hanging from the underneath of the gigantic summon outside dropped off, twisting in the air and embedding themselves deeply in the floor on either side of Chaos and Elfé, each at least ten feet tall.

"_Perfect._" The ring-hilted barbs crackled briefly with black lightning before vanishing. "_My turn. Little firefly, do try not to scream your throat bloody._" with that, Chaos' right hand fisted around Elfé's left more firmly, black tendrils seeping into the Materia fragment embedded in the woman's left hand and through into her chest. There was a brief pause and then the AVALANCHE commander shrieked, convulsing as black lightning danced along her skin and her head slammed into the metal flooring underneath her. Sephiroth winced; the herald of OMEGA seemed to be forcing out in minutes what he had spent over a fortnight painstakingly coaxing into being in each of the Generals. That _had_ to hurt.

The looming summon overshadowing half of Junon dissipated away into nothing as the black energy coated Elfé like a cocoon, smothering her agonised screams as the scent of oozing fluids, Mako, ozone and pain filled the air.

"Chaos?"

"_What is it, little dragon?_" Chaos inquired nonchalantly, as if he wasn't pinning a writhing bubble of black energy to the floor.

"Why are you here in Junon today?"

"_I sought the little firefly. I have been following the little knife behind you all day, ever since the attack on Midgar, in order to find her._"

"How did you know that would lead you to her?" Sephiroth asked. Chaos just knew things sometimes and the Silver General wanted to know how that worked.

Chaos grinned, demented glee all over his ash-grey features. "_When you can see the patterns it is not all that hard to see where they are going, little dragon. Especially when the players behave in such an orderly fashion._" The way the quasi-summon said '_orderly'_ was utterly disdainful, as if the word tasted sour. Then the black lightning receded and Chaos rose abruptly to his feet, pulling Elfé with him. "_My work here is done._" With that he he released the AVALANCHE leader.

The woman stumbled backwards, black, elytra-like wings spreading and vibrating as she tried to remain standing. "What did you _do_ to me?" she rasped hoarsely.

Chaos smirked. "_You sought to steal the might of Zirconiade, the One who will Burn the World, little firefly. Such a dangerous presumption; your theft has permanently opened your soul to him. However the differences between human and summon are such that his power was killing you. I have simply ensured that is no longer the case: you will no longer be weakened by the Materia within you._"

Sephiroth stared at Elfé; he couldn't help it. She now had pale bone rings around her forearms and calves, two long, antenna-like bangs that swept back from her face over the back of her head and ivory markings along her jaw in addition to the insect-like wings. The leader of AVALANCHE glanced down at herself, back at her wings, over at the Silver General then leapt out of the massive hole in the wall, wings blurring to stabilise her fall.

"_Well, this is goodbye then,_" the herald of OMEGA said brightly. "_Little dragon, little knife, I bid you both farewell._" He spread his leathery wings and shot out of the hole, heading straight up into the sky. Sephiroth glanced over at the shell-shocked rookie Turk behind him, around at the mess then sighed and pulled out his PHS. The Mako cannon was secured, the terrorists were dead or running away and the President was still alive. He'd done what he had been summoned here to do and the rest was Veld's problem.

* * *

><p>Chaos does his thing and casually releases a few more secrets. Order is so <em>boring<em> when you can literally see it forming around you.

I wonder who I'll do next. Veld perhaps? Cloud? Nero? Any suggestions or preferences?


	46. Fifth Iteration

**Fifth Iteration**

Cloud never, ever forgot even for a moment that Vincent was a Turk. He just couldn't: it pervaded her very being, colouring everything she said and did. Every move was deliberate, every word calculated on one level or another, all backed up by the Turk creed: gather information, uncover facts, consider the mission, take appropriate action and cover your tracks. Vincent likely didn't know how to _stop_ being a Turk anymore.

Since settling in Midgar and joining SOLDIER Cloud had acquired a whole lot more information on Turks, partly courtesy of Kunsel but mostly as a result of his own finely tuned observation and hacking skills. Firstly, that trier internal hierarchy dictated which missions they took, what orders they followed and when. The President had less control over the Investigative Division of General Affairs than he thought he did and the rest of the board had no say at all, despite the Turks occasionally accepting missions from Hojo or Scarlet, generally at the President's behest. Like the ongoing situation with the pretty flower girl in Sector Five of the slums: Hojo wanted her as a specimen but Tseng had been in charge of that mission for _months_ and she was still at large. With blue-suited bodyguards trailing her at a distance, in fact.

Second was the simple fact that Rufus Shinra, the President's son, had greater personal sway over the Turks than his father did. Cloud only picked that up from reading between the lines on mission reports, careful eavesdropping and attention to gossip and rumour, but it was there out in the open provided a person understood the Turk mindset. So far as he could see, it had been a gradual shift in loyalty that took root and spread as the President grew to depend more on SOLDIER and Sephiroth to protect him and enforce his will over the past seven or eight years, pushing the Turks aside to a supporting role and to guard his son. The loyalty shift probably also had something to do with Veld's family getting killed back when Kalm was firebombed, Vincent's own suspicious death ‒recently revealed to have been falsified by Hojo‒ and the surfacing of the Science Department's other disgusting covert projects such as Deepground. The Turks practically raising Rufus gave them an alternative boss who Veld was certainly grooming for leadership: the younger Shinra likely knew Turks better than his father ever had, having been around them and actually interacting with them for years just as Cloud had been mostly raised my Vincent for the second half of his life.

Which brought up the most salient point: in order to carry out their jobs to the highest possible standard and stay mostly sane, all Turks sooner or later delegated a third party as their moral anchor and conscience. Aged sixteen and a new Turk, Vincent had 'killed her heart' ‒her own words‒ and made President Shinra her conscience, since he was the one giving her orders. She therefore had gone out to fulfil said orders with such ruthless efficiency and chilling thoroughness as to become the ultimate ideal all Turks were encouraged to aspire to over twenty years later.

Vincent had been the perfect killer for a decade, until Lucretia Crescent had caught her eye and awakened her heart in Nibelhiem, slowly revitalising the red-eyed Turk's own battered moral compass. Then had come Sephiroth, who had instantly become Vincent's Personage ‒person to be protected at all costs‒ and Hojo had become the enemy, later cementing his role by experimenting on her personally. That hadn't helped her sanity and had chipped off pieces of her personality so they operated independently when she was under stress. That's what Galian Beast, Death Gigas and Hellmasker were, after all: manifestations of her then-most-prominent personality facets, Instinct, Obsessiveness and Schadenfreude, all pushed beyond their limits. The sudden lessening of those factors' influence on her psyche had given her a rather abrupt personality shift, making her less violently inclined, more mentally flexible and more empathetic. Ironically it also made her more competent at functioning in an unstructured environment; the old Vincent Cloud had read about in reports might just have gone back to working for ShinRa out of the simple need for imposed boundaries and limits.

* * *

><p>Cloud still wasn't sure why Vincent had agreed to train him back when he had been eight. He hadn't been anything special as a child, short skinny and horribly naïve. However the quiet, calculating avatar of Chaos had seen something in him that prompted her to teach him. Not merely teach: two years later she'd assumed full responsibility for him and taken him on a tour of the Planet. Looking back on that decision the blond realised that by that point Vincent had totally abandoned her loyalty to President Shinra and made Cloud her moral compass, making herself his personal Turk as they embarked on their shared mission to help Sephiroth and destroy Hojo. Looking back, Vincent had only started investing in sustainable energy after Cloud himself pointed out that Mako reactors were using up the Lifestream and killing the Planet.<p>

That Vincent and by extension all Turks were hopelessly co-dependent as a result of their training did not come as a surprise; that it was _Cloud_ that Vincent was depending on and had ever since he was ten was a bit of a shock. He'd been totally oblivious, so his red-eyed teacher must have relied entirely on his subconscious non-verbal cues and occasionally expressed personal opinions. That she'd managed to find a measure of personal inner balance after her ordeal at Hojo's hands was seriously impressive; that Cloud had been elected to help supplement that balance was humbling.

Of course, Cloud had been somewhat corrupted by his teacher's ruthless Turk practicality but unlike Vincent he still had his own moral foundation informing his actions. Now he understood the true nature of their relationship it was a rather scary responsibility, but the blond SOLDIER understood now that Vincent had been a Turk for too long and been too badly damaged by Hojo to be able to respond proportionally to perceived threats of different types. She needed Cloud's softer perspective to keep herself in line, especially with Hellmasker being the psychopath he was.

What really puzzled Cloud however was _why_ ShinRa's greatest ever Turk ‒however battered and fractured she was‒ had picked a backwater nobody as her ultimate moral authority. Vincent had pretty much appointed the blond as her new boss, which just did not make sense. Turks were supposed to act in the best interests of the ShinRa Electric Power Company and the Shinra family, quietly ensuring the road to global supremacy was free of potholes and bumps. The transferral of authority over the main body of the Turks to Rufus Shinra could be explained away since he was the company heir and embodiment of its future, but Cloud wasn't any of that. He was just Cloud Strife, fatherless Nibelheimer. What on the planet had Vincent _seen_ in him to make a naïve, half-trained _child_ her ultimate authority?

Of course Cloud was a SOLDIER third now and hailed as a prodigy likely to make it to first-class in a few years, but most of that was due to Vincent's rigorous training. He was also rather attached to all of the extended Valentine family despite not knowing them very well. The blond had not the slightest intention of using his newly-discovered authority to veto Vincent's vendetta against the Company, but he was uncomfortably aware that if he told her to drop it she probably would. Which was creepy to even think about.

Cloud did not however intend to let the President or Hojo get away with anything, which was why he was in the process of exchanging detailed messages on his personal PHS with both Vincent and Genesis to organise a strike to the Science Department main headquarters to liberate the hard-drives containing all the Deepground data that wasn't written anywhere else. Said hard-drives were not connected to the main Company network, so they had to go and retrieve them in person rather than just have Weiss and Shelke retrieve the information through synaptic net diving. The actual plot was Cloud's brainchild and Vincent had approved its simplicity. It was military sleight-of-hand with Genesis, Rosso and the few remaining feral Deepgrounders acting as the distraction, Angeal keeping Hollander in check and Vincent ensuring the Turks would not interfere. Meanwhile Cloud, Weiss and Nero would just walk right into the Science Department, get what they were after and walk out again. No mess, no fuss. If things _did_ go wrong then Nero just had to use his newly-mastered powers to teleport everyone to safety.

Weiss had liked the plan too, if the rather manic grin on his face when he'd arrived at Vincent's Midgar apartment at the end of March was any indication. Nero on the other hand had that thoughtful look that Cloud recognised from watching Seph plot pranks. Part of Cloud wished the Silver General could join in the fun, but for the plan to work all the blond could do was warm Sephiroth in private that Vincent and co were going to infiltrate the Science department to steal more data. That way Seph knew to stay out of the way and do other things elsewhere.

* * *

><p>A more in-depth explanation of what exactly is wrong with Vincent in particular and the Turk mindset in general. I think Cloud will be discovering his heritage soon.<p>

The way I've set it up is that Mako affects men and women differently, which is why there are no women in SOLDIER. Men are affected physically first, their bodies being strengthened and warped until their minds can no longer cope and they eventually crack if their Mako levels get too high. Only the most self-accepting and emotionally supported cope.

Women are affected mentally first, becoming physically affected as the Mako changes their bodies to reflect mental changes. This means that, while women are generally more able to deal with how they are changed at the highest Mako levels, they are likely to be completely insane by then. Vincent is crazy but functional and totally uncontrollable by anyone except her chosen authority, which is Cloud. Hence why Hojoj decided that women in SOLDIER were not a sound investment.

This is why there are only men in SOLDIER, why Rosso is so fragile mentally and why Mako levels have to be carefully monitored.


	47. Discrete Viewpoints

**Discrete Viewpoints **

Shelke Rui, ten years old and officially dead, sat under a desk in an abandoned office on the thirty-fourth floor of the ShinRa building wearing a virtual reality helmet. Vincent was lurking somewhere in the shadows nearby, keeping an eye on her as she hacked into the security robots' control network and fiddled with the AI targeting protocols. Once she's set off the robots and the intruder alarms she would be taken back to the apartment to wait, but her part in this little operation was still vital: she would be setting everything off and ensuring most of the Turks would be busy fixing what she'd broken so Weiss, Nero and Cloud could sneak in and out of the Science Department Headquarters without being noticed. As she continued her tinkering she spotted Dr. Hollander on the unmanned camera feed in the stairwell on the forty-fifth floor; he must have been trying to get into the archive again, but how in Hel's halls had he gotten away from Angeal?

Aware that the idiot professor could easily ruin everything if got caught now, Shelke quickly checked that everybody else was in position, sent a message to Genesis telling him to loose the Deepgrounders, activated the security robots' modified protocols and triggered the ShinRa building's intruder alarm. As red lights flashed and sirens blared the ten-year-old was snatched up and bundled out of the office's open window just before the steel shutter could slam down. Safe in Vincent's arms as the former Turk bounced them off the side of the building and across the scaffolding down to normal rooftop level, Shelke let herself be carried halfway across Sector One before persuading her red-eyed guardian to put her down on the street below.

"I can walk the rest of the way by myself, Vincent; I can protect myself. You need to go and make sure everything goes to plan."

"Be safe," the former Turk said forcibly before vanishing back the way they'd come in a swirl of red.

Shelke made it safely back to the apartment building, not in the slightest bit perturbed by the distant crashes, screams and monsters running across alleys: she was wearing an active Enemy Away Materia that Cloud had given her around her neck and passed by unharmed. She'd been in Cloud and Vincent's care for almost a year now and had learnt and grown more than she'd previously believed possible. She could now defend herself with both weapons and Materia, disguise herself effectively in several different ways within minutes and blend in with a crowd, had travelled all over the Eastern Continent and even been to the islands around Mideel. She was also getting very good at using her own unique gifts, helped along by Weiss' tutoring. The memories she'd copied from Cloud acted as a kind of internal advice system, enabling her to get a sort-of second opinion on things. Of course it wasn't the _real_ Cloud, but it was good enough in a pinch.

The apartment was empty when she let herself in and gloomy from the overcast and polluted sky outside; now she had to wait patiently for Weiss and Nero to get back so they could all go home together. Sighing, the little girl found herself some sandwiches in the fridge and fished out a pack of cards to pass the time with.

* * *

><p>Zack had not expected to be summoned to Lazard's office on the morning of the first of April. Sighing, he trudged over to the lifts and made his way to the fifty-first floor where the Director had his office. He'd spent the past month and a half stamping out renegade Wutai forces in and around Midgar and fighting various battle simulations for professor Hojo, both of which had left him with a bad taste in his mouth.<p>

On reaching the office he was surprised to find both Sephiroth and Cloud waiting there with Lazard. The Silver General had been impossible to catch up with in the past month and a half, always busy on missions with his blond protégé or locked in his office doing paperwork. The second-class wondered how Cloud's Corel standoff with the Turks was going; on the few brief occasions he'd been able to chat with the chocobo-blond in the hallways since the SOLDIER third got back from Wutai Zack had noticed that passing Turks _always_ paused to glance at Cloud. It was positively disturbing the way they treated him, like the short blond was a sleeping Midgar zolom or something.

"Congratulations," Lazard said, swivelling his chair to face Zack, "Starting today you are a SOLDIER first-class. You have an appointment scheduled tomorrow afternoon in the Medical centre on floor forty-seven to sort out your next Mako injections."

Zack blinked. He'd completely forgotten he was being considered for promotion. "Sorry sir, but I have to say I don't feel particularly excited," he admitted honestly.

"I suppose that isn't much of a surprise; a lot has happened in the past months after all," Lazard conceded. "Now Zack I know this is a bit sudden but I called you up here because I have a favour to ask."

Zack turned to glance over at where Sephiroth was brooding and Cloud was staring at a fixed point across the room, face obscured by his helmet. "Sending me on another high-level mission, sir?" he bit out.

"I apologise for how the Banora mission turned out," Sephiroth replied steadily. It had been six whole months since Zack had seen Seph, let alone spoken to him; they hadn't interacted at all since they were stationed together in Wutai and the spiky-haired brunet was still a little resentful that the silver General's reticence had foisted the disastrously painful Banora mission on him."

"It's fine," Zack said, privately grateful for the apology. "What is it this time?"

"First you go and get changed into your new uniform," Lazard said. "It's waiting in the room through there," the Director pointed at a door. Zack went through and found a small bathroom and changing room with his black uniform waiting on a counter top. He changed quickly, moved all his Materia over to his new armlet, laced up his boots, checked himself in the mirror and hurried back into the office.

"The company has decided that Genesis and Angeal must be assassinated," Lazard said as soon as Zack was back in front of the desk.

"You're asking me to do that?" Zack blurted out in horror.

"No, the ShinRa army will be," Lazard explained.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"They don't trust you to do it," Sephiroth said, smoothly taking over the conversation, "because SOLDIER solidarity and camaraderie would dampen your resolve."

"Hey!" Zack protested. Sephiroth turned to face him:

"Which is why I'll be going."

Zack slowly turned his head to look the Silver General in the eye. Angeal was Seph's _uncle_ for Shiva's sake! Was the General really implying that he would kill a member of his family for ShinRa or was he just trying to fool Lazard? "To kill them?" he challenged.

There was a pause as Sephiroth smirked, the quiet dragging on until it was suddenly interrupted by alarms squawking as emergency lights flashed red and steel shutters sealed the windows.

"We have intruders!" Lazard exclaimed.

"Where?" Zack demanded.

"In here," the Director replied in shock. "Sephiroth, go up to the President's office. Zack, take care of the entrance."

"Leave it to me," Zack agreed, glad to have something to do to distract himself.

"Cloud, follow," Sephiroth snapped as he strode out of the office. The third-class swiftly caught up with his mentor, silent and obedient. Zack wondered a little at that but guessed that the blond was trying to make a good impression on people who might question his obedience and competence. He was after all under a great deal of scrutiny being the Silver General's protégé and all, more scrutiny than Zack had ever been under as Angeal's student.

Since Seph and Cloud had to take the lift to get up to the President's office Zack headed for the stairs. It was a long, long way down and he had to hurry.

* * *

><p>Cloud entered the elevator at his General's heels and as the doors closed he flipped open his PHS and pressed the 'call' button, alerting Nero that the moment had arrived to 'infiltrate' the building. As they ascended towards the fifty-ninth floor the lift was briefly filled by a cloud of absolute darkness, which receded to reveal two more anonymously uniformed third-classes. Cloud smirked; Weiss and Nero's disguises were perfect, the gauntlets concealing the youngest teen's Dark tattoos and both Valentine boys' distinctive hair and eyes hidden under their full helmets and visors.<p>

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the new additions but did not comment as they changed lifts. The Silver General swiped his keycard and pressed the buttons for both the sixty-seventh and sixty-ninth floor and waited for the doors to close before speaking:

"I assume you will be able to leave without needing my assistance?" he murmured as the elevator rose further into the heart of the ShinRa Headquarters.

"Yes, General Sephiroth sir," Nero replied meekly. The youngest Valentine did not look noticeably out of place in his uniform, being tall for a thirteen-year-old; he was as tall as Cloud, who was fourteen and a half. Weiss was taller than both of them, just past Sephiroth's shoulder at exactly fifteen years old. Which reminded him...

"Happy birthday," Cloud whispered with a smile. Weiss smirked back happily.

"Indeed, best wishes," Sephiroth said dryly as the lift stopped, "and good luck." The doors opened and the trio in sky-blue SOLDIER uniforms stepped out into the Science Department's main floor. Behind them the lift doors slid shut again and the elevator continued upwards, taking Sephiroth onwards to the President's office only a few levels higher.

Cloud swallowed hard, ignored the butterflies in his stomach and the panicking people in white coats and led his little strike team around a few corners to the out-of-the-way little room which held the Science Department's central server. Now for the risky part...

* * *

><p>Three different points of view as the ShinRa building is plunged into chaos. The herald of OMEGA must be so proud of his students.<p> 


	48. Complementarity

**Complementarity**

Vincent lounged on a fourth storey windowsill on the boarder between Sector One and Sector Eight, watching the confusion as out-of-control security robots, Beasts ‒as the feral Deepgrounders were properly called‒ and a good number of the more mentally damaged regular Deepgrounders reached the Plate and dispersed through the street, wreaking havoc. No snipers ‒Vincent had quietly disposed of those of the elite shooters unable to adjust to their new situation‒ but a solid quantity of heavy swordsmen and troopers armed with machine and sub-machine guns. These SOLDIERs had reached the Plate's surface through the sewers, train tunnels and various other hidden passages, driving the local monster population ahead of them. As a result the entire Plate was crawling with a disorganised mass of Turks, ShinRa SOLDIERs, Deepgrounders, robots and monsters, all running around in groups and attacking each-other. Well, the ShinRa forces were ignoring or aiding each-other, but that was the extent of cooperation being shown; the mayhem was awe-inspiring. It was going to take _hours_ to get Midgar back to normal and most likely things would still be disorganised in the morning.

Swinging sabaton-topped boots idly, Vincent spotted Zack Fair leaving the ShinRa building headed towards Sector Eight. That was just asking for trouble: Turks ‒and only Turks‒ patrolled the entertainment district. Oh, and the spiky-haired brunet was dressed in black now; his promotion must have gone through. The boy was being groomed for command, possibly to replace Sephiroth when Hojo's scheduled 'Reunion' finally came around. His charisma and dutiful obedience to orders made him the kind of SOLDIER the President approved of: a biddable poster boy. Hopefully the little puppy would grow out of his trusting naïveté soon.

Turning her attention back to Sector One ‒Zack could take care of himself‒ the rogue Turk spotted a very familiar SOLDIER in purple dancing around a pair of berserk robots, the remains of another one scattered across the road: Kunsel. As soon as she recognised him the red-eyed avatar of Chaos felt her clothing shift and change into Draculina's usual garb.

_Go play with the little spy, paradox mine,_ the herald of OMEGA purred in her head. _Perhaps a little violence and shared danger will relax him enough for him to forget his paranoia-inspired chivalry and show proper appreciation for your body._

Vincent gritted her teeth at her tenant's amusement at her situation but dropped from her perch and hurried towards the fight, loosening the pair of long knives in their sheaths crossed over the small of her back. She loved Kunsel, she really, truly did, but his phobia of uncovering his eyes meant that despite dating for eight whole months they hadn't moved past slightly awkward if heated kissing and fevered groping. Of course Draculina's clothes were tight enough to make taking them off the easiest way to get under them, but her boyfriend had thus far resisted the temptation of doing so, mostly because he was too busy dodging her attempts to take off his sunglasses so they could kiss properly. It was driving her crazy! She knew he was from Wutai and looked it ‒she'd hacked his SOLDIER records as soon as she realised he was serious about dating her‒ and honestly wasn't bothered. Really, so what? She was more worried about how he'd take it when he eventually found out that Draculina was just an aspect of the infamous Vincent Valentine.

With all of this in mind and a niggling sense that things would only snowball from here, Vincent equipped her two main knives with an Elemental linked to and Enemy Skill and a Gravity linked to an All respectively, ensured a Destruct and a Contain were equipped to her Outsider handgun and that Cerberus, her precious triple-barrelled semi-automatic revolver, was safely hidden away in her inventory. That gun was her favourite, made fer her personally back when the Weapons Development Department actually invested in prolonging the lives of the troops rather than building toys like the security robots, stupidly huge laser cannons and other rubbish Scarlet was so fond of. Cerberus was a work of art, a one-of-a-kind that identified her as Turk Vincent, elite, just as much as her red eyes did.

The formerly ShinRa-affiliated Turk had an advantage over every other person on the planet in that her Chaos gauntlet ‒currently masquerading as a trio of bracelets‒ acted as an equippable armlet but did not prevent her from wearing a proper one on her other arm as well. True, the gauntlet could only be equipped with Materia to be used offensively, but it was still a massive advantage. Her normal armlet, a Minerva Band, was armed with a Seal, a Restore, a Speed Plus, a Time linked to a Counter and a Shield that hadn't levelled up yet. Her 'Chaos Gauntlet' had equipped a Manipulate, a Mystify, a Comet, a W-Magic and an All, HP Absorb and Pre-Emptive which the WEAPON could move around to link to whichever Materia he wanted at short notice. She also had Typhoon, her favourite summon, equipped. The W-Magic was one of her most-used Materia, as it enabled her to shoot ‒always left-handed when she was Draculina‒ and throw spells simultaneously.

She joined the fight just after a pair of gargoyles and a Beast ambushed Kunsel from behind, taking down the Beast with a single Death-spelled shot from her Outsider before focussing on finishing off the robots, knives flashing. Behind her Kunsel made quick work of the gargoyles and found himself face-to-face with an irritated Behemoth. Vincent then lost her temper with both robots and monster, blasting all three of them with Comet All followed by Freeze All. Their enemies effectively Stopped, the disguised Turk finished them off with her knives.

"Wow," Kunsel gasped as the opposition fell apart into scrap metal and green swirls of Lifestream. The red-eyed fighter, her blood humming hotly, holstered her weapons, whirled around, stalked over to her boyfriend, wrenched up the visor of his helmet and kissed him. It didn't take the SOLDIER many moments to catch the mood: Mako enhanced all instincts, of which the principle three ‒Fight, Flight or Fuck‒ were most heavily boosted. They'd just done the first, which had set the mood for the last. Said instincts were part of why most SOLDIERs had casual partners within the program if they weren't in a committed relationship; Mako really did kick a person's libido into overdrive.

The incognito Turk let her boyfriend drag her into a handy dead end out of sight of the main road. "I don't care about your background," she muttered between kisses as she unbuckled the SOLDIER's armour, "I don't care who you've killed or why. You're mine and I'm not letting go, no matter what. I love you. Got that?"

"Crystal," Kunsel whispered into her throat as he unbuckled the back of her corset. "Sure you want to-"

"We can find somewhere more private _next time_," Vincent hissed firmly, running her nails down his torso as she wrenched off his sweater. Kunsel got the message and kissed her again fiercely, hands moving to unbuckle her belt. The impatient rogue Turk helped, her blood on fire and mind blessedly quiet. This was hers and hers alone and she wanted to savour it. There would be plenty of time later for being responsible.

Then her lover managed to loosen her trousers and coherent thought went out of the window completely.

* * *

><p>Vincent's relationship with Kunsel progresses to the next level. A short chapter, but I have the next one to hand.<p>

Reviews are love and will get you updates!


	49. Locality Principle

**Locality Principle**

After fighting his way through berserk robots in order to get out of the ShinRa building Zack ran into a few Turks fighting Dead Men; Tseng was one of them. One of the other Turks was a cute little redhead with a really big shuriken, but the newly-promoted first-class didn't think she was as pretty as Rosso.

Once that fight was over Tseng sent the other two Turks −Reno with the crimson facial tattoos and Rude with the sunglasses− off somewhere else. Zack wondered where they were going, considering that the invading forces were coming from the opposite direction.

"So, even the Turks are out and about, huh?" he commented idly, hands clasped behind his head.

"SOLDIER's been deployed, too," the little redhead said.

"Yeah, although we're pretty short-handed at the moment," Zack agreed. "Are you new?" The spiky-haired brunet had got in the habit of noticing Turks now that the blue-suits were stalking Cloud and he hadn't seen this girl before.

"I'm Cissinei," she told him with a sweet smile.

"I'm SOLDIER Zack," the first-class responded, holding out a hand to shake.

"Zack, aren't you in the middle of a mission?" Tseng pointed out politely. Cissinei covered a smile with her hand as Zack pulled back and rubbed his elbow.

"Well, our goals are the same so can't I join in with you guys here?" the SOLDIER asked.

"Thanks but no-" Tseng started to say, but was interrupted by Cissinei:

"Oh, how brave of you to offer!" she giggled. "Tseng, Zack, I'll see you both later." That said, she ran off. The tilak-marked Turk frowned at the SOLDIER, sighed then shrugged.

"Why not? Just try not to attack people in blue suits."

"Would I do something like that?" Zack protested, not entirely seriously. There were one or two Turks he wanted a shot at; they were the ones who were usually stalking his friend. Tseng however did not get a chance to reply as the first-class spotted a trio of Dead Men down a side road and sped off in pursuit.

* * *

><p>The last person Zack had expected to find fighting off a Grand Horn on the edge of Sector Seven was Rosso. Then again, since Genesis was the person nominally in charge of the army of Dead Men, maybe her presence shouldn't have been such a surprise after all. Not one to ignore a damsel in distress, the SOLDIER leapt into the fray. In the fight that followed Zack learnt that Rosso was indeed extremely good with her double-bladed glaive and that she favoured Ice and Demi spells in contrast to the Crimson General's preferred Fire and Flare.<p>

The monster defeated, Zack offered Rosso a potion. "Are you all right?"

The redheaded teen shrugged and swallowed down the offered liquid. "Good enough. You?"

"I'm fine!" Zack promised, grinning happily. Here he was, having just rescued his crush from a dangerous monster, and her brother was nowhere to be seen. "What brings you here, Rosso?"

The girl batted her eyelashes at him. "I'm being distracting. Is it working?"

Zack had to admit −if only to himself− that he was currently very distracted. Rosso's new outfit included a top with a plunging neckline and tight sleeves in very bright red with a matching miniskirt that ended less than an inch above the tops of her thigh-high, skin-tight black leather boots with three-inch heels. His thoughts must have shown on his face because the redhead looked him in the eye for a moment then smirked wickedly:

"It's working, isn't it." It wasn't a question. Zack was spared the need to answer as his PHS picked that moment to ring loudly.

"Hello, Zack speaking?"

"After you've finished cleaning up in Sector Eight come to the Sector Five Mako reactor," came Sephiroth's deep voice through the phone. It was fortunate that the Silver General had such a recognisable voice, because his telephone manner was abysmal. He never introduced himself, never said goodbye and was just as cryptic as he was in person. It was one of the elite SOLDIER's more glaring flaws, so Zack never commented on it; it made Seph more human somehow.

"Did you find something?" he asked.

"I received information of Angeal being sighted," came the reply.

"_Are_ you going to kill him when you find him?" Zack inquired warily, very aware of the girl listening in from opposite him. He didn't really believe that Seph would do it −Vincent would kill him if he even tried− but he had to be sure.

"The army is on the move but we still have some time. We will have to find him before they do," Sephiroth continued, apparently ignoring the question.

"What are you going to do?" Zack shouted at the phone, finally losing patience with the cryptic-speak. The Silver General's word games were never his favourite thing and today had been stressful. There was an irritated hiss from the phone, followed by a short pause.

"... Fail to kill him," came the rather long-suffering tones of the elite SOLDIER.

"Really?" Zack brightened.

"Yes, really." That was Seph's 'humour the idiot puppy' voice. The first-class had never been so relieved to hear it in his life.

"You are seriously the best ever!" Zack gushed, but was cut off by the dial tone before he could add anything else. Seph really was bad with phones.

"So?" Rosso inquired curiously, reminding Zack again that he had an audience.

"I'm going," the brunet said firmly. "You just-"

"I'll follow you," the redhead interrupted. "If Angeal is there, so is Hollander. That means Genesis will likely turn up too and I have to find him anyway."

"Why would Hollander be there? You guys aren't working with him are you?"

Rosso snorted. "Of course we aren't. He's just a handy scapegoat. But it's Angeal's turn to babysit the scientist, which he hasn't been doing properly if the Silver General received a sighting report."

"Ah." Zack let the conversation drop and lead the way across Midgar towards Sector Five at a run, Rosso loping behind him.

* * *

><p>The duo were ambushed by a very strong Dead Man with a sword just inside the Sector Five Reactor. Zack engaged the man at close range while Rosso fired spells long range; it didn't take them long to put the chillingly determined SOLDIER down.<p>

"Why in Shiva's frozen hells did he attack _you_?" Zack asked Rosso. "Don't those guys work for Genesis?"

"The sane ones do; the rest cannot distinguish enemy from ally without the aid of a centralised and colour-coded computer filter," Rosso replied sadly as Sephiroth approached them. "It was a choice between put them down and let their deaths mean something; no right answer, just a set of equally hard decisions. Hello General."

"You must be Rosso; Cloud mentioned you," the Silver General said politely with a slight bow. "It is a pleasure to meet you at last."

"Sephiroth," Rosso responded with a demure smile. "Cousin Vincent speaks highly of you. As does my eldest brother, oddly enough."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Genesis speaks highly of me?"

"Well, what he actually said was 'he's the only person I'm resigned to losing to' but I think he meant it as a compliment," the redhead responded with a wider grin. "He certainly whinges terribly whenever Vincent thrashes him."

Zack, abruptly reminded of the incident in the Silver General's office the previous year when Cloud had referred to Genesis as 'the ginger whinger', snorted in amusement and had to muffle a chuckle with a fist.

"Unfortunately, regardless of our personal preferences Zack and I have orders," Sephiroth said gravely, a twitch of the lips the only indication of his amusement at the Crimson General's predicament. "Will you be accompanying us Rosso?"

The redhead shook her head, hair floating loose. "I have business elsewhere. See you next time, General. You too, cute boy," she added laughingly as she sashayed past Zack and around the corner.

"Zackary?" Sephiroth inquired, raising an eyebrow. The brunet SOLDIER first reddened. The General sighed. "Try not to get yourself killed, Fair. There are few enough competent SOLDIERs as it is."

* * *

><p>Zack meets Rosso while out and about and gets to admire her new outfit, which is a slightly more decent version of her Dirge of Cerberus gear since it includes an actual skirt. Oh, and a short explanation of why Seph won't be killing Angeal any time soon.<p>

There will be a chapter from Veld's point of view, I promise, but it won't fit into the plot just yet. For now we'll be sticking to the people on the ground.


	50. Singlet State

**Singlet State**

Further inside the reactor Sephiroth and Zack found another old-fashioned Mako tank ‒again occupied by a catatonic Dead Man‒ a bed and a whole lot of paperwork. They did not however find a scientist. Zack groaned, kicking at the metal floor. He needed to talk to Angeal, dammit! Where the hell was his mentor?

Sephiroth, apparently unperturbed by either the floating body or his subordinate's poor humour, leafed through the notes and papers attached to a clipboard whilst muttering darkly to himself. As far as Zack could tell, most of the words the Silver General was uttering were highly profane and addressed at both scientists in general and Hollander in particular. He hadn't known Seph even _knew_ those rather colourful phrases and had certainly never heard them used before.

"Did Cloud tell you about Project G?" the Silver General asked after tossing the clipboard aside in contempt.

"Only in passing," Zack admitted carefully. "I know it was named after Angeal's mother and that she, Genesis and Angeal were the test subjects. Genesis was considered a failure and Angeal a success, but both needed the same medical treatment, which Vincent provided."

"The reason they needed treatment was that the experimental project implanted in them cells which hosted an extraterrestrial virus. Said virus had matured within them to the point of being entrenched enough to consume them completely, which would have degraded their bodies and eventually killed them. Had Valentine not intervened when she did both Genesis and Angeal would be very sick by now. Possibly dead, certainly dying."

Zack's jaw dropped.

"Even if they were still alive they would certainly have become severely mentally unbalanced and irrational," Sephiroth went on, "as sick people are rarely sensible and brain cells would have been just as affected as the rest of their internal tissues, not to mention the effects of the pain they would be suffering. We all owe Valentine a great deal for that." He paused, head tilting to one side. "Follow my lead."

There was a moment of quiet, then a few soft sounds drifted over from behind Zack; someone was coming down the stairs. Then the spiky-haired brunet heard Hollander's voice:

"Se-Sephiroth!"

"Hollander," the Silver General replied coolly, turning to face the scientist. "So you are here after all." he walked closer, drawing the professor's attention away from Zack, who considered edging closer to take the man down.

"Who else did you think would be capable of stopping Genesis and Angeal's degradation?" Hollander retorted. Zack wasn't fooled; the scientist was afraid, he could almost smell it.

Then Genesis dropped from the rafters, swings spread and sword drawn, landing lightly between Sephiroth and the professor. The Crimson General moved smoothly, wings mantling back in clean arches behind him to block the scientist from their sight. He smirked over at the two ShinRa SOLDIERs, hair fluttering and earrings swaying.

"Genesis," Sephiroth said flatly. Zack moved so that he was behind his General and a little to the right. The Crimson General levelled his rapier at them, point inches from Sephiroth's throat.

"I will not hand over Hollander," the black-winged SOLDIER drawled calmly as the scientist fled the scene.

"Zack, go after Hollander," Sephiroth snapped. Unsure of what the whole pantomime was in aid of and unsure of his place in the grand scheme of things, the young first-class just nodded and obeyed, dashing off at speed. He was a straightforward kind of guy and this all was too complicated for him to keep track of, so he resorted to the military default: follow orders. He trusted Seph, so he had no issue with chasing after the renegade professor.

Genesis stepped aside graciously, wing curving back to let Zack give chase to the scientist while never wavering from keeping the Silver General at swordpoint. Taking this as permission from both parties, the brunet sped on up the stairs at Hollander's heels.

* * *

><p>Zack finally caught up with Hollander on the lowest floor of the Mako reactor, down by the open and unfinished part of the building that had a missing wall, so the sky was visible over the edge of the Plate. The SOLDIER was angry at whet the scientist had done to his mentor, angry at the man's short-sighted greed and lack of care.<p>

"Do you even understand what you're doing!" he shouted angrily, advancing as he drove the cringing professor closer to the open edge. Then a very familiar sword swung down from behind a pillar, blocking his advance. Hollander instantly took advantage of the distraction and fled. Zack sighed. "what are you playing at, Angeal?"

"World conquest," came the deadpan reply.

"Ha, ha, very funny. Enough with the boring jokes already!"

"Revenge then," Angeal said, eyes staring straight ahead out at the overcast late evening sky.

"If it's for revenge, why are you working with Hollander? Isn't he the one you should be taking your revenge on?" Zack pointed out logically. Angeal ignored his words, walking over towards the open end of the floor where the biulding work hadn't been finished yet. "Oi! Angeal!" Zack called after his mentor, moving closer.

There was a flurry of white feathers and Zack took a step back with an awed gasp. Angeal had _wings_. Pristine white wings, one pair large as a griffins if not larger with a smaller, vestigial pair tucked underneath the main ones.

"Look what I've become," Angeal said unhappily, "and tell me what I should seek beyond revenge or world conquest. I am no longer human."

"They're beautiful," Zack countered, walking closer. "You have angel's wings."

"So if I am an angel, what should my goals be?" Angeal snapped, wings twitching angrily. "What dreams should I have?"

Zack didn't know what to say. Theology was not his strongest subject and he'd never seen his mentor go completely to pieces before. The Dark General hefted the Buster sword and drove it into the floor, then advanced towards his student with dangerous deliberation. Zack retreated. "Angeal," he pleaded.

"Angels have only one dream," the white-winged General growled at his protégé.

"So tell me what it is," Zack responded, still retreating. His instincts were screaming at him and Angeal was not an opponent he could beat, which left running away.

"Angeal paused. "To be human," he hissed through clenched teeth. Then Zack was airborne, bent double from a punch to the stomach.

He landed heavily, tumbling across the floor to end up in a heap on the metal gratings back near the stairs. The first-class staggered carefully to his feet, moved into a fighting stance then relaxed with a self-mocking chuckle. He couldn't fight Angeal; he didn't even _want_ to fight Angeal. But his mentor wanted him to fight back. Back before they defected it had always been Genesis that was the pushy one.

Which meant that it fell to Zack to do what Cloud had always done whenever he wasn't in the mood to be creamed by the Crimson General in a not-quite-spar: not play along.

"Fight!" Angeal snapped at him.

Zack rocked on his heels and shook his head, a bemused smile on his face. He, Zackary Fair, was being the grown-up one for a change. Go figure.

Angeal frowned and his right hand ignited with a Fire spell. The Dark General roared in anger and the spiky-haired SOLDIER flinched; this was going to hurt. Then too many things happened at once:

Angeal punched the ground, causing the Fire to shoot towards Zack along the ground at high speed.

Something hit the cringing SOLDIER from the side, knocking him out of the way of the blast as it exploded and loosened the floor gratings beneath him.

Someone shouted.

Zack rolled over on the unsteady gratings into‒

‒Rosso?

Rosso had knocked him out of the way of the blast.

"Rosso!" came a second bellow. Zack looked up just as the gratings fell away from beneath him to see Genesis leap down towards them from the top of the staircase. The young first-class had barely enough time to wrap himself protectively around the girl who'd tried to help him as they fell down into the abyss, the Crimson General plunging after them.

Then the corner of one of the gratings slammed into Zack's skull and everything went black.

* * *

><p>More confrontations in the Sector Five reactor and Zack falls through the Plate again, though this time with company. I think Genesis may be next, but there will be Turk viewpoints after that as I will have moved to a point in the plot where long overviews are possible.<p>

So, Veld. I'm looking forward to it.


	51. Information Theory

**Information Theory**

Genesis had been having a reasonably good day. The Invade-Midgar-as-a-distraction operation had proceeded smoothly despite Shelke calling them half an hour early: being a General in Wutai had taught him to make sure there was enough redundancy built into his strategies so that it was possible to adapt to unexpected changes. As a result all his troupes had already been in place when the girl's message arrived and minutes later the Plate had been crawling with Deepgrounders. The Crimson General had not participated personally in any of the fights panning out in the streets, preferring to fly high above the fray and keep an eye out for any of the major players.

He only landed when he spotted Hollander running into the Sector Five reactor, which he should not have left in the first place. The professor was supposedly being guarded by Angeal, but it seemed the Dark General had not yet recovered from the shock of his mother's suicide. Vincent was doing what she could to help him, but Angeal had been having nightmares, had retreated from reality and was often both broody and dangerously oblivious of his surroundings. Genesis personally thought his best friend needed a good pounding to set his priorities straight but kept his opinions to himself. It had only been three months and two weeks since Gillian Hewley took her own life; if Angeal was still depressed in three months time he'd take more drastic measures.

Sephiroth arrived at the Mako reactor shortly after Hollander, prompting the Crimson General to move off the building's flat roof and into the structure through an unfinished wall. His plans needed Hollander to remain alive for a little while longer, so he had to keep the idiot professor out of ShinRa's clutches, which in this case included Sephiroth.

Genesis located Hollander and shadowed him inconspicuously until the scientist stumbled across Sephiroth and Zack while looking for his notes. Rolling his eyes at the professor's ineptitude, the Crimson General dropped into the escalating confrontation from his perch in the rafters and held Sephiroth at sword-point. He let Zack chase after the panicking Hollander; the scientist would run to wherever Angeal was currently moping and the puppy would be distracted enough by his mentor's gloom and doom to ensure the professor's escape.

Once Zack had left the room Genesis let his Rapier drop away from Sephiroth's throat and smiled. "_There is no hate, only joy, For you are beloved by the Goddess, Hero of the dawn, Healer of Worlds._"

"LOVELESS again? You never change. What are you trying to achieve here, Genesis?" the Silver General asked.

The redhead smirked. "The three friends are now gathered. One becomes the prisoner, another flies away while the last remaining friend becomes the hero."

Sephiroth sighed, pupils thin slits. "What is it with you and that play?"

"It is a prophesy: Chaos told me so," Genesis retorted. "We seem to fit the pattern; which of us is the hero, I wonder?" He did so love getting into heated debates with his silver-haired colleague. "I want to know what _the gift of the Goddess_ truly is, and when the prophesy will finally come to pass."

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at the vibrant, black-winged, red-coated General opposite him. "You can be the hero if you like; the role holds no pleasure for me. You are investigating the end of days?"

Genesis shrugged. "It passes the time, which I now have a great deal of. By the way, Hollander is being funded by a third party; dear cousin Vincent suspects Lazard to be embezzling Company funds on the professor's behalf. You may yet find yourself confined to desk duty if his activities are discovered."

The Silver General growled, sounding quite disturbingly dragon-like for a moment. Genesis didn't blame him; paperwork was of the devil. "Oh, and how is Cloud doing? He won't tell me."

"Very well indeed: his broadsword competence in increasing daily, he completes his missions efficiently and his behaviour is exemplary," Sephiroth replied rather smugly. "Well, his documented behaviour is exemplary at least."

"And what of his undocumented behaviour?" Genesis inquired with a suggestive twitch of an eyebrow.

The Silver General's smug expression bloomed into a disturbingly evil grin. "The Turks are all instinctively nervous of him, and they are getting constantly twitchier as they cannot find a single shred of proof to support their suspicions. It is a joy to watch."

Genesis sniggered, then froze. Something wasn't right...

"Excuse me, little cousin: I think Angeal may be having another meltdown."

Sephiroth waved a hand agreeably and the Crimson General took off, weaving through the rafters towards the lower floor area where his best fried had been lurking. He arrived at the top of the stairs just in time to hear an explosion and see his little sister and Angeal's puppy drop into a ventilation duct along with the gratings that were supposed to prevent this kind of accident from happening.

"Rosso!" Genesis bellowed, diving after them.

* * *

><p>The interior of the Plate was highly inhospitable and very hard to manoeuvre in when you had a wingspan of over thirty feet and were carrying a teenage girl and a fully armed and unconscious SOLDIER taller than you were. Fortunately Genesis managed to catch Zack and Rosso before they did themselves any serious damage, although the puppy's seeping head wound did not look good.<p>

After at least an hour of controlled falling and bouncing between support beams in confined spaces with his arms full the Crimson General finally dropped through the bottom of the Plate and instinctively spread his wings wide to slow their fall. Unfortunately the excess weight he was carrying meant that, while he was able to go from a plummet to an almost-glide, he was unable to prevent them from tumbling through the hole in the roof of the building below their exit point.

Flapping heavily, Genesis managed to land on his feet rather than slam into the floor, which he counted as a win. After letting Rosso down and laying out Zack on the worn floorboards the Crimson General looked around to get a feel for where they'd ended up.

It was a church, a very old and dilapidated one that still had pews in rows as well as a chunk of floor pulled up near the altar. In the patch of ground exposed by the torn-up boards flowers grew, beautiful gold and white blossoms nodding on lush green stems. Genesis had never seen flowers growing wild anywhere in Midgar before, even on the Plate. Finding a patch of sweet-smelling paradise in the Slums was surreal.

"Dad?" Rosso quavered. Genesis turned at once to survey his genetic offspring anxiously: the younger Valentines only ever called him that either to poke fun when he was being overprotective or when they were feeling badly shaken.

"What is it, princess?"

"Have you got a Restore? Zack's hurt bad."

Genesis glanced down at the insensible SOLDIER. She was right; he should have woken up by now, head-wound or not. "Here," he held out the requested Materia. "You keep an eye on him while I secure the area."

"Thanks Dad." Rosso gave him a pale, wobbly smile then knelt down next to the puppy and cast Cure on him. Genesis smiled encouragingly at her, snapped his wings away then surveyed his surroundings more attentively. He was officially dead, but reported sighting of a redhead in a red leather coat would still bring the army down on him and he didn't want Rosso caught in the crossfire. Or Zack, come to that: the puppy had matured admirably in the past year and seemed to care enough about Rosso to get his head bashed in trying to protect her.

With anonymity in mind Genesis found a door leading to an old stairwell ‒the actual staircase had been destroyed by the unexploded missile leaning against one of the walls‒ and reluctantly changed out of his coat, gloves, braces, uniform sweater and knee boots, putting on in their place the standard SOLDIER boots like Angeal wore and a long-sleeved dark blue sweater. His beloved Rapier hidden in his inventory alongside his customised uniform, Genesis walked out of the room into the main church, ready to go exploring.

"You forgot the earrings, Genesis," Rosso called after him with a faint smile as he walked past her towards the exit. The Crimson General paused, made a face at his baby sister and carefully removed his precious earrings.

"Anything else, princess?"

"Yeah: wear a hat," the teenager said cheekily. Genesis growled softly but pulled out a knitted cap to cover his distinctive hair. Now completely unrecognisable to any save his closest friends and family, he headed out to determine where they'd landed.

An hour's walking about enabled him to pinpoint where on his mental map of the Slums the church they'd landed in was. It was still Sector Five, but much further towards the interior than the Mako reactor was. However it was still close enough to the Plate's perimeter that dawn sunlight would be able to enter the stained glass windows, if the moonlight across the floor when he returned was anything to go by.

"Sleep," he ordered Rosso firmly as he sprawled out on the floor next to the flowerbed; "I'll keep watch." Rosso nodded, snuggled up to the still-unconscious Zack and immediately dropped off. All three of his younger siblings could sleep anywhere at the drop of a hat; that they'd needed to learn the skill at such a young age made Genesis itch with the desire to commit murder.

Having determined that the only person to regularly visit the church ‒a girl with size four feet who wore sandals‒ was unlikely to be a threat, Genesis let himself doze. People could manage without him until morning.

* * *

><p>Genesis, Rosso and an unconscious Zack crash-land in Aerith's church. Genesis goes incognito and grudgingly gives the teenage duo his approval.<p>

Next up: It's Veld! At last!


	52. Entanglement Swapping

**Entanglement Swapping**

Veld was feeling extremely disturbed by the events of the past twenty-four hours. First an extremely talented hacker ‒who he truly prayed was not affiliated to AVALANCE‒ had sent all the security robots crazy and locked down the ShinRa building, then Reno and Rude had spotted professor Hollander leaving the document room and deduced that the scientist was the culprit behind the recent spate of data thefts. The two Turks had pursued Hollander down to ground level and across Sector Eight ‒the professor had a good turn of speed when pressed‒ but lost him after running into a pack of Deepground forces lurking near a theatre.

All of the Turks and most of SOLDIER had been out on the streets of Midgar all through the night fighting off Deepground forces, rogue robots and monsters that had been roused by the invasion. Then Angeal had been spotted near Mako reactor five and the President had dispatched Sephiroth to investigate; a choice Veld personally disapproved of, given the circumstances. The Silver General had returned a few hours later with news that Hollander and Genesis had been there alongside Angeal, but that they had escaped after knocking Zack down a ventilation shaft.

Veld knew that the newly promoted first-class was likely sleeping off a concussion in the Slums by now and let it be when the President ordered Sephiroth to comb the ShinRa building to ensure it was secure enough to lift the lockdown.

To be honest the chief Turk was more worried about the reports of a red-cloaked stranger with a triple-barrelled revolver taking out monsters coming in from across half the Plate. The only person to ever use a gun like that had been Vincent, and that some of the reports referred to red eyes and wild black hair confirmed his uneasy hunch. What had Hojo done to her after she had been reported dead?

Veld felt horribly guilty about the situation with Vincent, his fierce, ice-cold and thrillingly competent lover and longtime partner. They'd worked together almost constantly for seven years before the string of assassinations and her subsequent deployment to Nibelhiem, which had officially been a 'cool down' before returning her to active duty. But after the first year in Nibelhiem she'd started sending him messages about how the project was setting off her instincts and how Hojo worried her. Then she'd been reported dead and Veld hadn't done anything to investigate. True, he hadn't believed the 'lab accident' story for an instant ‒it was _Vincent_ for Hades' sake!‒ but he'd thought she'd poked her nose into something the President had ordered her killed for and had never wondered whether she might still be alive.

In hindsight the evidence pointing to her survival was fairly obvious: 'Specimen V' had first been referred to in Hojo's notes the very same day of his partner's apparent demise and had been extensively experimented on for the next six months, at which point side project V had been declared a failure and terminated. Proof of Vincent's continued existence was contained in other notes referring to the rampage of a specimen through the Nibelhiem Laboratory barely two days later, followed by the entirety of the scientists decamping back to Junon in the next twelve hours. The rampaging experiment had been pronounced 'confined' but not dead and had been left behind.

Then there was Draculina, who was currently dating SOLDIER second-class Kunsel, one of Tseng's contacts. She was most definitely a Valentine and probably Vincent's daughter, born during her string of wetworks missions before Nibelhiem. The date of her birth set conception around the first week of the mission, meaning it was equally possible that Veld was her father rather than one of Vincent's targets. The chief Turk still wasn't sure how he felt about that; he'd recently discovered that his daughter Felicia was not as dead as he'd been told and was the leader of AVALANCHE. The possibility of being the father of _two_ grown daughters, one by his old partner, was a bit of a shock. His conviction that Elfé was his daughter Felicia had been confirmed by Chaos, the strange summon who had mutated said daughter using the fragment of the Zirconiade Materia grafted into her body.

Veld had his own suspicions as to how the Silver General had known Chaos ‒Sephiroth did bare an uncanny resemblance to both his former partner and Draculina‒ but the Turk hadn't pressed the elite SOLDIER for details. He had however invested in some illegal blood tests and ascertained that Sephiroth was almost Vincent's clone and that both the other two Generals were closely related to the renegade Turk. That invisible network of relationships gave Veld a deeply uneasy feeling, which Cloud Strife's presence in the SOLDIER program exacerbated to the point of becoming a fully-fledged sense of impending doom: Vincent _always_ had a plan. She was a consummate professional and a highly gifted schemer. All the subtle signs pointed to her plan involving Very Bad Things for the ShinRa Electric Power Company, or at the very least the top three or four levels of management. If Vincent really was out for blood the President and the Board ‒with the possible exception of Reeve Tuasti‒ were a lost cause. There had never been a Turk as brilliant as her either before or since her 'death' and with her SOLDIER contacts there was no way Sephiroth would oppose her if she chose to clean house. If he even could.

With all of this in mind, Veld had made his peace months ago with the necessity of cutting his losses and focussing on keeping Rufus and as many Turks as possible alive when the axe fell; the President had brought this upon himself when he allowed Hojo to turn the Company's most proficient assassin ‒who was quite possibly the best ever on record‒ into a test subject for the effects of Mako on the human physiology. The data Veld had managed to find suggested that Vincent had more Mako in her system than even the three Generals, which had resulted in her developing destructive metamorphic Limit Breaks. Hojo's hints suggested that she had also been experimented on by a third party who had added the insanely powerful and independently intelligent summon Chaos to her repertoire, implanted much as the Zirconiade fragment was in Felicia. Opposing her as she had been twenty-five years ago would have been tricky; doing so now would be suicide, which was why Veld was focussing his energies on preserving what he could: Vincent wasn't ambitious, just driven. Once she'd had her revenge she'd in all likelihood drop off the map and let Rufus pick up the pieces.

This process of subtle detachment from the top of the ShinRa hierarchy and protection of his subordinates involved disseminating subtle misinformation both within the Investigative Division of General Affairs Department and to the people he theoretically reported to. It was also why he let Tseng get away with not handing the Cetra girl in the Slums over to Hojo. The evidence from the blood tests had been completely destroyed, Vincent's true gender had not been disclosed to anyone and he had reassigned the Turks digging into Draculina's background to find out more about AVALANCE. All in all, he did his best to ensure his Turks were ignoring what his former partner was up to and well away from whatever her plans were. Thank the Goddess hunting down the two rogue Generals was now the Infantry's problem.

Veld, distressingly aware of the sword of Damocles casting a shadow over the Company, did his best to keep busy and pretend he didn't know what was coming.

* * *

><p>Veld is not stupid and he knows the old Vincent better than anyone. More importantly, he has imparted his moral compass to the continued well-being of the nebulous idea of 'The Company' rather than any specific individual. This means that ‒when faced with the prospect of Vincent gunning for most of the Board and the entire Science Department‒ he is perfectly prepared to cut his losses in order to preserve the greater whole.<p>

After all, 'The Company' will survive the shake-down so long as there are enough capable people left to pick up and keep going afterwards.

He's still nervous though.


	53. Superdense Coding

**Super-dense Coding**

The Crimson General woke to the sound of the main door of the church opening and the faint shush of approaching sandalled footsteps. The renegade SOLDIER waited patiently until the interloper was close enough to notice both his young charges ‒which happened when she was practically level with his chosen spot‒ then rose silently to his feet and coughed politely.

The girl whirled around and squeaked in surprise to see him standing so close, placing a hand over her heart. "Goodness you startled me!"

Genesis did not respond, staring at her with wide eyes. Never in his life had he ever seen such an adorable young woman. She had long, thick, red-brown hair in a braid and emerald green eyes, wore a blue and white sun-dress with sandals and looked about sixteen, possible a little older. She hummed on his Mako-sense, a faint croon of life, light and joy that was unlike anything he'd ever felt before and made him slightly giddy.

"Er, hello!" she said brightly.

"Hello angel," Genesis said, totally captivated by her aura of gentleness and generosity.

"No, I'm Aerith, not an angel," the girl corrected him. "What happened to your friends over there?"

"We fell through the roof," Genesis told her. "I'm Genesis, by the way, and you _are_ an angel."

Aerith pinked slightly but didn't seem to recognise his name. That was good: it meant he could spend time with her with less of a risk of being found out. Genesis firmly quashed the voice ‒that sounded suspiciously like Angeal‒ which protested that Aerith was the same age as his little sister; she was an angel and completely perfect, so he had no intention of letting her get away.

"I hope you don't mind us staying the night in your church," the incognito fugitive added.

"No, not at all," his angel replied with a sweet smile.

"That's very kind of you," Genesis told her warmly. "Will you let my repay your generosity, angel?"

"There's no need to really," Aerith protested, "and I'm Aerith, not Angel."

"Nonsense; no-one as lovely as you could be anything but an angel," Genesis said firmly. "_Infinite in mystery is the Gift of the Goddess_. I have to do something for you in return." He paused. "Might I offer you lunch, angel Aerith?"

"You're being silly!" the teen protested, cheeks still pink. Genesis took the lack of refusal as a good sign and laid on the charm, stepping a little closer.

"Please? I couldn't possible take advantage of someone as generous and pretty as you."

Aerith shuffled slightly, then looked up sharply as he moved closer again. "Stop! Don't tread on the flowers!"

Genesis looked down: he'd almost trodden on the pretty yellow blossoms.

"People should be careful around flowers," Aerith scolded him.

"I sincerely apologise for my inattentiveness," the Crimson General responded with a sweeping bow. "In my defence, you are much prettier." He paused to enjoy her renewed blush. "How did you get them to grow? Flowers are rare in Midgar, even on the Plate."

"They only grow here," Aerith said, face coming alive as she started on what was clearly a favourite subject. "The ones I planted are thriving as well," she wandered sideways a little and waved at the white flowers, "see?"

"Flowers should be appreciated by as many people as possible," Genesis mused. "Perhaps you could sell them? Everyone in Midgar would pay for pretty flowers."

"Everyone in Midgar would pay for pretty flowers?" Aerith repeated thoughtfully. "I've never thought about it like that before."

"Then why don't you accompany me to lunch so we can talk more?" Genesis suggested with a smile. Charming innocent teenage girls was much more of a challenge than seducing adult women and he really didn't want to push his adorable little angel too hard. "Rosso?"

"Hm?" his little sister mumbled, rolling into a sitting position and blinking up at him blearily.

"Stay here with Zack until he wakes up and keep an eye out; I'm taking our generous host out to lunch," he told her. "If the puppy has to leave make your way out to the chocobo stables and wait for me there."

"Enjoy your date!" the Crimson General's Mako-enhanced hearing caught his sister calling after him. Thankfully Aerith had normal human hearing and so missed Rosso's teasing.

* * *

><p>After wandering around the market area for a bit Genesis bought takeout for a picnic, caught a boy trying to pick his pockets and then allowed himself to be persuaded to kill the monster that had eaten the young thief's wallet. That done, he convinced Aerith to sit and eat the food in the park with him and tied the pink ribbon he'd bought her in her hair.<p>

Once the meal was over their conversation turned to ShinRa and the SOLDIER program.

"Have you ever met a SOLDIER?" Aerith asked.

"It's hard to avoid them in Midgar," Genesis replied easily. His sweet angel clearly didn't have a clue what SOLDIERs looked like or she'd have recognised Zack's uniform or taken more notice of the faint luminescence in the Crimson General's eyes.

"I wonder if that's a good thing," the teen mused quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, children all like stories of heroes who protect the world," Aerith said sadly, "but they aren't really normal, are they? I'm not entirely sure but I think SOLDIERs have to go through some kind of special medical procedure, right?"

"Apparently," Genesis hedged.

"I think it would be better to be normal," Aerith concluded firmly. "The whole idea of SOLDIERs seems strange to me."

"Strange, hm?" Genesis was a little hurt. He wasn't strange! He was a hero and he was helping people!

"Yes, and scary," she added quietly. "They all like fighting so much."

That hurt more. Yes, Genesis _did_ like fighting but he felt that was a universal guy thing rather than a specific SOLDIER thing. And he was not scary, at least not to cute girls he really wanted to kiss.

"I was in SOLDIER once," he told her softly.

Aerith gasped, her head jerking up to meet his pale blue-grey eyes with her brilliant emerald ones. "I'm sorry!"

"Well, you said you'd never met a SOLDIER before, so perhaps you shouldn't judge on rumour," the Crimson General said carefully. He rather hoped they'd be able to patch this up and didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"I am so sorry," Aerith whispered.

They sat side by side in silence for awhile, Aerith sneaking peeks at him under her eyelashes. "So pretty," she sighed eventually.

"Who, me?" Genesis had never been called _pretty_ before.

She giggled. "No, silly; your eyes."

"You really think so?" Genesis asked, voice low and a little rough as he tilted up her chin with a finger. "Look at them all you like then."

Aerith met his eyes tentatively.

"The slight glow is from the Mako; all SOLDIERs have that," Genesis murmured gently as she continued to stare into his eyes. "You have pretty eyes too, you know: they shine even without Mako."

Aerith looked away and shoved him playfully. "Don't be silly!"

"I do have nice eyes though don't I?" the Crimson General said teasingly, resolving then and there to complement her as often as possible so she would get more comfortable with it. "Like the dawn sky, an impossibly pale blue."

"I've never seen the sky," Aerith said pensively."I always thought it would be scary, all that emptiness overhead, but if it's like your eyes I'll have nothing to fear."

"You are partly right though: I'm not in the slightest bit normal," Genesis said wistfully. "That doesn't bother you does it, Aerith?"

She smiled. "I thought today would be normal and then I met a SOLDIER who fell from the sky."

"It wasn't bad at all then, was it angel?"

"Not at all."

Then Genesis' PHS rang. "Hello?"

"We've been discovered," came Weiss' brisk, sharp tones. "SOLDIER has been summoned and Nero is unconscious."

"I'll be right there," Genesis promised. The phone went dead and he turned to look at the pretty young woman he's managed to take out on a date. "Aerith? Something came up and my family need me."

"Okay. I'll just be going, then," she said softly as she rose to her feet. "I will see you again, won't I?"

"_Nothing shall forestall my return_; I wouldn't dream of staying away," Genesis replied fervently.

"Then go help your family," Aerith said warmly. The Crimson General rose smoothly from the bench and kissed her hand.

"Your wish, angel mine, is my command."

* * *

><p>Genesis meets Aerith and is completely besotted. I think she likes him back just as much, to be honest.<p>

I'm going on a camping holiday with my family for a week so it will be at least that long before I update again.


	54. Field Quanta

Yes, it's been a while but I haven't abandoned it. Enjoy!

**Field Quanta**

Wiess ground his teeth in irritation as he flattened himself against the wall of the corridor, one arm outstretched to keep his unconscious baby brother out of the line of fire of the ShinRa forces attempting to kill them. It had all been going so well, too: they'd easily got into the room housing the Deepground database and the three of them had painstakingly replaced each individual hard drive with an identical blank one, swapping wires with gloved hands so as not to leave behind fingerprints or DNA. The Deepground data drives had then been packaged up and hidden in Nero's extradimensional void, which Genesis had dubbed 'pocket-space'. They had then tried to leave unobtrusively, but had been thwarted by an overbearing scientist who had first berated them for being in a restricted area then demanded they identify themselves so he could lodge a complaint. Weiss had bitten back a retort and obligingly handed over the ID cards that had belonged to their uniforms' original owners –who had deserted with Genesis and now worked for cousin Vincent– then calmly knocked the man out when he tried to imput them in the system.

Unfortunately however there must have been someone manning the security cameras in spite of the current crisis as the next thing the former Deepgrounder knew alarms were blaring, red lights were flashing –_again_– and SOLDIERs piled into the lab through the stairwell with weapons at the ready, backed up by regular troopers with guns.

Nero had been hit by a ricocheting bullet barely three seconds into the fight as the trio dived for cover, prompting Weiss to swallow his pride and call Genesis. Yes, either he or Cloud could singlehandedly clear the room in under a minute if it came to it, but that wasn't the mission. The mission was to get in, get the data and get out without blowing their cover.

Which was why he was still crouching in the corridor which led to Hojo's public access cells, taking pot shots around the corner at the SOLDIERs using one of Nero's handguns and waiting for said baby brother to come around again so they could leave. Cloud was sprawled flat on the floor with a folding sniper rifle Weiss hadn't known the blond even owned, taking out cameras and electrical equipment with a steady aim and maiming anyone incautious enough to attempt to get closer. Three SOLDIERs had been kneecapped before they got the message and at least one trooper had lost a hand to Cloud's perfect marksmanship. The white-haired teen was privately impressed; the blond was costing the Company ever increasing sums of money with every piece of machinery he perforated and his actions would set the science department back by _months_.

He did wish big brother would get a move on though. It did _not_ take ten minutes to fly halfway across Midgar.

There was a faint swoosh that Weiss automatically categorised as the sound of the lift doors opening, a soft hum swiftly followed by a chorus of panicked and pain-filled screams as the room flared with bright red light. _Speak of the devil..__._

"_Nothing shall forestall my return_," quoted a smugly superior voice around the corner from where Weiss and Cloud were hiding with Nero. "I never liked those four. Were you successful?"

"Sir!" Weiss said, stepping carefully around the corner so he could see the entire lab area, Nero's gun still gripped in one hand. The room was a shambles; Genesis must have used Flare on it. The SOLDIERs weren't dead, but they'd take a lot of patching up.

Behind him Cloud slung his rifle over a shoulder, palmed a Restore Materia and cast Cure on Nero, fingers gently probing the bloody mat of hair on the side of the brunet's head.

Genesis tapped a foot impatiently and waved a hand at the white-haired infiltrator in the pale blue uniform. "Well?" Weiss could tell he wanted to ask more, but microphones were a real risk and they couldn't give anything away.

"Data retrieved and lower laboratories sabotaged, sir!" Weiss barked, careful to stick to the pre-arranged script. A groan behind him signalled Nero's return to consciousness. "No casualties, sir!"

"Injuries?" Genesis pushed tersely.

"Nothing a little rest won't cure, sir," said Nero, coming over to them with a hand gripping Cloud's shoulder. The red-eyed teen really wasn't used to working without his extra arms, which was likely why he'd been hit in the first place. Next to him Cloud also communicated his perfectly adequate health, using SOLDIER sign language rather than risk someone recognising his voice.

"Off with you then; I have a part to play," the redhead said regally. "Shoo."

Nero grabbed Weiss upper arm with his free hand and everything was swallowed by chilly blackness which rippled and swirled, eventually receding to reveal the inside of Vincent's apartment in Sector One. Shelke looked up from her game of cards spread over the dining table:

"Finally! You've been gone eighteen hours!"

Cloud immediately took control of the conversation. "Weiss, you and Nero take Shelke home; I have an alibi to establish. Shelke, catch."

The younger girl caught the airborne Materia and gently ran her fingers over its surface. "Ooh! Lightning! Thanks!"

"You're very welcome," the blond replied with a smile, removing his helmet and running gloved fingers through his spikes. "Now scat."

Nero nodded, put one hand on Shelke's shoulder and the other on Weiss' upper arm then called up the darkness again.

* * *

><p>Weiss staggered on the second landing: long distance shadow teleporting was extremely uncomfortable for everyone other than Nero or Vincent. As soon as she'd recovered her balance Shelke wandered off to play with her new Materia, leaving the white-haired teen to pull off the uncomfortable SOLDIER helmet and drag his younger brother down to the infirmary: head injuries were not to be taken lightly, even when you were Mako-enhanced. Having abandoned Nero to the not so tender mercies of the medic on duty, Weiss carefully carried the stack of hard drives he'd pressured his brother into handing over up to the data room and painstakingly set about connecting them to the designated computer, which was deliberately not attached to the global network. True, he had been up for almost twenty-four hours, but his enhancements meant he could go on for another ten hours at least before fatigue started to become an issue and this really needed doing. Hopefully the medical data necessary to keep the remaining former Deepgrounders sane and in good health would be in here; Weiss knew they all needed regular Mako injections but they'd been forced to play fast and loose with the dosages since the escape due to the dearth of relevant data and the difficulty involved in getting hold of medical-grade Mako. Of course, their forces were less than a tenth of what they'd originally been –closer to a fifteenth really– so the Mako shortage was not really a problem anymore. Especially now they could siphon off the Banora reactor.<p>

The lack of suitable Mako was likely why such a large proportion of the borderline forces had completely lost themselves: not enough Mako was almost as bad as too much once you'd passed a certain threshold. At least it was for men; women had no such problems with having their supply cut after the initial physical crash and short withdrawal period, which explained how Vincent had survived all these years. Nero, Rosso and Weiss himself were all on first-class doses calibrated for their size and sensitivity, which was only possible because they were closely related to Vincent and the Generals, all of whom had copies of their own detailed medical records, so only slight alterations had to be made. The rest of the forces –other than the deserters who were on standard SOLDIER doses– were less well off due to the severely limited medical records recovered from the Deepground facility.

Having wired in the first two hard drives and checked them for nasty little surprises, Weiss hooked up his primitive home-made virtual reality helmet to the computer and turned it on. It was time to decode the encryption, decipher the passwords and find out whether the information they were after really was contained in the recently stolen hardware.

* * *

><p>Yes it's short but my muse is grumpy. I think it's because Modeoheim's immanent and Angeal is still acting up. I have that sinking feeling about that...<p>

Anyway, more Weiss!


	55. Renormalisation

**Renormalisation**

Zack sat quietly in the Turk-piloted helicopter taking him to his next mission, running over the past two weeks in his mind. After falling through the grating in the reactor he'd woken up in a derelict church in the slums with Rosso leaning over him. The redhead told him that Genesis had left after agreeing to put up with their budding relationship, presumably to continue whatever mission the forces under his command had come to Midgar for in the first place. The newly promoted first-class had therefore made the most of his time with his crush –who was quite happy to become his girlfriend– until a call came through from Sephiroth summoning him back to the ShinRa building: Genesis had invaded the Science Department.

On his way across the Plate Zack had run into Angeal again. The Dark General had confessed to experiencing moments of diminished awareness and reduced sanity before changing the subject back to his preferred topic of conversation: honour. Zack had been persuaded to help his former mentor and had then been bodily lifted into the air and flown across the city to the ShinRa building by the white-winged General.

Once inside Zack and Angeal had passed Cloud and later Sephiroth fighting monsters and Dead Men on different floors before finally reaching the Science Department, where Genesis had Hojo at sword-point and was looking seriously irritated. After the interruption the Crimson General had backed off a little and quoted LOVELESS –_there are no dreams, no honour remains: the arrow has left the bow of the Goddess_– before blasting a hole in the wall through an expensive-looking piece of equipment and taking flight. Angeal had grabbed Zack again and flown after his red-coated colleague.

They'd caught up again on a deserted road on the edge of the building site that was Sector Seven, where Genesis had summoned Bahamut, or at least _a_ Bahamut. It had been much, much nastier than the one Zack had fought in Banora a few months previously. Just as that fight was starting Rosso had called to give him the address of the apartment under the Plate where she would be staying for a while, so he'd had to cut the conversation short due to being divebombed by a massive, gold-plated dragon. Whether or not Genesis approved of Zack as a match for Rosso, the Crimson General certainly wasn't going to make it easy for the brunet SOLDIER!

As soon as the nightmarish invasion was over Zack had been shunted off for his Mako shots as required for his promotion to first-class, which had been the most physically unpleasant experience of his life to date. He'd spent four days bedridden and insensible, another three adapting then been sent out on more missions, this time to retrieve ShinRa supplies stuck in out-of-the-way places. He'd just finished a run and been just outside Rosso's apartment building when Tseng had found him and informed him that he's been selected for a mission to Modeoheim. The damned blue-suit hadn't even let him bang on Rosso's door and say hi!

So here he was, in a helicopter on a seven-hour flight up to the Northern Continent, which was bloody freezing no matter how much Mako a SOLDIER had in his veins. He was a jungle boy, not a mountain boy, Ifrit take it! Snow was Cloud's thing not his!

* * *

><p>Speaking of which, Cloud was also coming on this mission, though Zack couldn't fathom why Tseng needed two SOLDIERs in addition to the four regular infantrymen he had booked for the trip. The seven of them could probably conquer the entire continent by themselves if it came to it, which said exactly how deserted the area was.<p>

Cloud was currently slumped next to Zack, opposite the army grunts with his face slightly pale and his luminous blue eyes firmly closed. Zack felt for him; Spiky hated flying, though apparently helicopters were less bad than cargo planes. The young blond claimed that Gelnikas, ferries and trucks were all instruments of torture and only set foot in them when copious quantities of tranquilisers were in his system. Unless it was an emergency of course, in which case he would spend the entire journey an unflattering shade of green after vomiting his last two meals out of the vehicle within the first fifteen minutes.

Oddly enough, Cloud got on just fine with motorbikes and chocobos. Zack suspected that most of Spiky's transport issues would disappear if he was allowed to drive or pilot his own transport, but knew that the Silver General's protégé was unlikely to be given an opportunity to test this for himself.

Since they weren't due to land for another five hours Zack closed his eyes, ignored the whispering of the infantrymen –who really cared if Cloud was Seph's student?– and tried to get some sleep. SOLDIER had been run ragged since the invasion and rest had become something of a luxury: he hadn't had a full night's sleep since getting back on duty.

* * *

><p>Zack awoke from an unpleasant dream involving his fall through the reactor floor to find the helicopter plummeting through clouds and past snowy peaks.<p>

"Zack! We hit something! Get the grunts out!" snapped a familiar voice from the cockpit. The spiky-haired brunet was responding instinctively to the unmistakeable Tone Of Command when he realised that the speaker had been Cloud, who was technically his subordinate. Looking around, he spotted the blond leaning around the front seat of the chopper with one hand braced against the control panel while the other tore a knife through Tseng's flight harness.

"Cloud, what-"

"We're crashing Fair!" the third-class barked in a disturbingly Sephiroth-like manner. "Jump!"

Zack shoved the grunts out of the helicopter in pairs as the ground came into view –far too close– and leapt after them. The explosion behind him blasted him away from the wreckage and into a snowdrift, miraculously preventing serious injury. Spluttering, the brunet dug himself out. "Here's a fine how-de-do," he muttered irritably. "Bloody monsters not looking where they're flying. Hello? Tseng? Cloud? Anyone?"

A crunch and a thump from nearer the crash site had the first-class investigating. Only two of the infantrymen had survived the crash, the ones he'd pushed out of the helicopter first: the remains of the chopper had landed on top of the other two, crushing them. Roughly in line with the shattered windscreen a pale blue figure in the snow uncurled from around a darker blue one and staggered to its feet.

"I have safety glass in my hair," Cloud said matter-of-factly, shaking his head and sending glinting shards flying.

"Spiky! Are you alright?" Zack fussed, checking his friend for damage. He found thin cuts but nothing more serious. The wounds were already closing.

"Pretty good considering," the blond assured him, stepping out of reach. "Tseng?"

"I'm fine," the Turk said shortly, opening his PHS. "No signal out here."

"Well, we survived," Zack said bracingly, deliberately not mentioning that two of the grunts had not. "That's gotta count for something."

"At least we have someone with us familiar with the terrain," Tseng agreed.

"Yeah, I know my mountains alright," Cloud groaned, flicking more glass out of his collar and using a handful of snow to clean the blood off his arms. "And my snow. We should probably get moving before the grunts freeze."

"Very well then," Tseng decided, "We would have arrived in Modeoheim by now if we hadn't crashed so we don't have far to go. It's just at the bottom of these mountains, in fact. It shouldn't take us too long to get there."

"Follow me then," Cloud said agreeably, crunching across the snow in the direction Tseng had indicated, totally oblivious to the bitter wind and snow flurries. "Zack, point or rear guard?"

"Point; we're more likely to run into monsters than have them following us," the SOLDIER first decided. "Infantry to the rear; let's get moving!"

* * *

><p>Modeoheim. Ergh.<p>

Tseng brought Cloud along because he wants to work out what makes the blond tick, but our chocobo-head isn't making it easy for him. The crash did not go as well as it did in canon, but that's life for you.

I've got the next bit already written and it is BAD. Prepare yourselves for the worst...


	56. Direct Scattering

**Direct Scattering**

Genesis was angry. No: he was _enraged_. He'd just found out why Angeal was so miserable and erratic: Hollander was twisting his words to mess with the Dark General's head. Worse still, the pathetic professor had been spiking the honourable SOLDIER's food with high grade depressants, making it even harder for Angeal to cope than it already was.

The redhead stalked through the Modeoheim reactor, Rapier in hand and glowing softly. Hollander had gone too far this time and death would be far more merciful than what Vincent had in mind for the scientist. The red-eyed rogue Turk had been furious when Genesis told her what was going on and had immediately informed him that she would be in Modeoheim in under an hour, but the Crimson General had no intention of letting Hollander live even that much longer. Angeal had been his friend all his life, long before the redhead knew the brunet was also his cousin and the professor's actions were unforgivable.

The Crimson General cornered Hollander on the platform over the reactor core and closed in, sword pointing steadily at the bastard's nose.

"Stop!" the professor protested. "What's the meaning of this? You need me Genesis, remember? If you kill me, then who's going to stop the degradation?"

"Let me tell you a little secret," Genesis purred as he closed in, blade luminous red: "_We aren't degrading_." He savoured the expression of horror and abrupt panic on the snivelling scientist's face as he swung his Rapier in a smooth arc, lopping off the traitor's head with ease. He should have done this weeks ago.

There was a clanking sound to Genesis' right as Hollander's head bounced across the floor. The Crimson General turned to see Zack standing in the lift, eyes wide and jaw dropped. He'd clearly witnessed what had just occurred. As had Cloud, who was standing beside the puppy in a blood-flecked sky-blue third-class SOLDIER uniform, slightly taller than Genesis remembered him being and with an expression of Turk-like blankness on his face.

"Cloud," the redhead mused warmly, "it really has been too long since I tested your skills, hasn't it? Let's see how much you've improved, shall we?"

The blond SOLDIER third obligingly stepped out of the lift and drew a very impressive broadsword from the harness on his back. "Why is Hollander dead?" he inquired politely, settling into the guard position.

Genesis growled. "He crossed one line to many." That said, the Crimson General lunged.

Cloud proved to be a truly excellent swordsman, with all the grace and nimbleness of his pre-enhancement days compounded with a level of strength, power and speed more commonly found in second-class SOLDIERs. The two limited themselves to pure swordplay for the first ten minutes until Genesis started charging up his Rapier, prompting Cloud to grin like an Ahreman. The Crimson General almost lost a hand to the blast of ice from the blond teen's Contain Materia, then matched the younger boy grin for grin. Cloud combined Sephiroth's proficiency with blades with Genesis' own skill with spells and, despite lacking the strength and speed to match either General blow for blow, he was clearly adept at making his opponents work hard for their victories. This would be closer than Genesis had expected and more fun than the redhead had had in months. Casting Haste on himself, Genesis charged once more into the fray.

It wasn't until Cloud dodged, circled around and jumped high, tendrils of blue dancing over his skin as he called on a Limit Break, that Genesis noticed that Zack was no longer present. However he swiftly put the niggle out of his mind; the blonde chocobo-head could not be allowed to win!

* * *

><p>Leaving Cloud to deal with the ever-competitive Genesis Rhapsodos –or was it Genesis Valentine now?– Zack went looking for his former mentor. On determining that Angeal was not in the reactor the SOLDIER first-class started checking all the other buildings in the compound. He didn't bother with the radio tower though, as that was where Tseng and the last surviving infantry grunt were holed up. They wouldn't have left either, since it was the only intact building with heating.<p>

It wasn't until Zack entered the derelict bathhouse that he spotted Angeal, staring into space with the Buster Sword hanging limply from his right hand and his upper pair of wings half-furled around his shoulders. Zack walked closer, hands shoved in his pockets and boots sounding loudly on the tiled floor.

"To tell the truth, I really should have been more careful with Hollander," the Dark General said conversationally, not looking at his former student.

"Well, from what I saw that's been taken care of now," Zack said, the image of Hollander's head soaring through the air to bounce across the floor of the reactor floating across his mind's eye.

"Perhaps, but the next bit is entirely up to you," Angeal continued, spinning around to point the Buster Sword at his onetime student.

Zack stared at the sword point hovering scant inches from his nose. "What do you mean by-" his question was cut short as Angeal lunged forward, sword swinging. The younger SOLDIER leapt out of range of a blow that would have taken his head off if he'd moved any slower, then dodged another potentially lethal blow. "Stop it!"

"There's someone waiting for you, isn't there?" Angeal said evenly, moving closer.

Rosso sprang instantly to Zack's mind, her warm voice over the phone telling him to 'come back safe'. He had promised to. Reluctantly the spiky-haired first-class reached for his own sword. What was going on in his ex-mentor's head? "Angeal, you're not serious are you?" he pleaded. "You have people waiting for you, too!"

The brunet General did not respond, circling his former student and lunging again. Zack parried. "Angeal, why?" he begged. "You have family-"

"My father was dead before I was even conceived," the white-winged SOLDIER growled, "and my mother was so ashamed of me she committed suicide!"

Zack's eyes widened. Gillian had killed herself? That did make more sense than Angeal having killed her, but it couldn't have been because she was ashamed of her son. She had sounded so proud of him when Zack visited her. Besides, the Dark General was honest, honourable and loyal, a true hero that anyone would be proud of.

"I don't believe that," Zack contradicted firmly. "She sounded so proud of you, she would never be ashamed of you."

"Shut up!" Angeal roared. "I'm nothing but a monster! Part of the evil that contaminates the world! Remember your promise!"

Zack had promised to help Angeal purge the world of evil, but there was no way Angeal was evil. That was like saying Midgar Zoloms were cute and fluffy. He was about to say so when there was a flash of light and then where his former mentor had been standing there was a creature unlike anything Zack had ever seen before. It had the body of a Guard Hound with three barbed tails, the wings of a griffin, the arms of a Sagahin and a disconcertingly human face surrounded by a wolf-like mane of dark hair. It also had a very large and nasty-looking trident in its right hand. Zack gaped as the monster bounced in place on all four legs then levelled the trident at him and lunged. One of the weapon's saw-edged outer prongs slashed his cheek to the bone when he didn't dodge quite fast enough.

"Angeal, what happened to honour!" the young first-class screamed, fury and misery churning in his stomach as he raised his sword back into the guard position. His mentor may have gone completely insane, but Zack absolutely refused to force anyone else to deal with it.

* * *

><p>One very messy battle later the bathhouse was gutted with most of the ceiling gone and Angeal was back in his human form, lying on the ground mortally wounded with no wings in sight. Zack stared hopelessly down at his former mentor as the older man struggled for breath. This was Sephiroth's uncle, Genesis' cousin and best friend, and Zack had all but killed him. Guilt weighed on his heart like a Sector Plate, crushing it.<p>

"Zack? You did well," Angeal rasped. The younger brunet dropped down on one knee and couldn't stop a sob from leaving his throat.

"I'm counting on you to go on," the Dark General continued, clumsily holding out his Buster Sword. "Take it."

Zack gasped and sobbed again, unable to stop himself, but nonetheless reached out to grip the sword hilt. As he took the weight Angeal's hand fell back to the ground, leaving him holding the blade alone.

"Never forget your honour," the Dark General whispered through blue lips, then relaxed and closed his eyes. Zack quickly swung the Buster Sword to one side and leaned closer. Angeal couldn't be dead! Genesis and Seph would kill him!

"Angeal!"

Zack leapt backwards across the rubble-strewn floor as a figure wrapped in a tattered cloak dropped from the sky to crouch over the Dark General and frantically felt for a pulse. "Angeal!" the desperate cry came again.

The SOLDIER swallowed hard. Wild black hair and a gold gauntlet over the left forearm; this was Vincent Valentine, Sephiroth's mother and Angeal's older sister. She made an odd keening sound, then her head snapped up to glare at him, burning crimson eyes boring holes in his skull.

"Get out."

"I..." Zack stuttered, not sure what he wanted to say.

"OUT!"

Zack fled. As he reached the doorway to the outside the entire building exploded, sending him flying into the snow.

"Zack?" Cloud appeared and helped the SOLDIER first to his feet. "What-"

"I killed Angeal," Zack said flatly, voice sounding oddly distant to his own ears as rain began to fall around them. "He's dead." The brunet's breath caught painfully in his throat. "Seph's going to kill me."

Cloud gently took the Buster Sword off the other SOLDIER and produced a Materia. "You need to rest Zack; you're in shock," the blond said gently. "Sleep. I'll take care of everything for you."

Zack surrendered to the rising darkness. He really did not care anymore.

* * *

><p>And cut. You can never plan for everything and when you try to, shit like this happens. Poor puppy.<p>

I'm sick and bedridden, so the next chapter may take a while. Take heart in that death is not always the end...


	57. Mesophase

**Mesophase**

As soon as Zack keeled over asleep Cloud hefted the higher-ranking SOLDIER over his shoulder and made tracks for the radio tower at top speed. This was bad. Very bad. However the only thing he could do was take care of Zack, distract Tseng and trust Vincent to fix things. Angeal had probably died, but the past few years had taught him that –provided a person got to you in time with phoenix down– such an inconvenience was not necessarily permanent. And Vincent moved _fast_.

The blond forcibly pushed his worry and speculation to the back of his mind and resolutely ignored it. He was on a mission. The mission came first.

"What happened to lieutenant Fair?" Tseng asked as Cloud carefully laid his friend out on the floor near the wall heater in the main room of the radio tower, incidentally the only heated area in all of Modeoheim.

"He killed former-General Hewley and went into shock," Cloud said shortly. "I cast Sleep on him to prevent further damage; once we're back in Midgar I'll take him to his girlfriend's house. She's got a good head on her shoulders and will be able to help him mourn so he can get over it and put himself back together."

Tseng did not say anything in response to the third-class' somewhat high-handed actions and decision, preferring to change the subject: "A helicopter will be here to take us back to Midgar in approximately half an hour. Would you report what occurred in my absence?"

Cloud straightened. "Sir. First-class Fair and I entered the reactor in search of professor Hollander. We found him on the suspended floor over the reactor core but were too late to prevent his decapitation by former-General Rhapsodos. Rhapsodos then engaged me in combat while lieutenant Fair continued exploring the area. My battle against the defector continued until he jumped over the railings into the reactor core, quoting LOVELESS. _Ripples __form on__ the water'__s surface, the wandering soul knows no rest_." The blond did not add that there was no way that Genesis could be dead: winged people do not passively fall to their deaths after all. "Being unable to follow Rhapsodos to confirm his status I went looking for lieutenant Fair. I found him in the snow outside the remains of the old bathhouse, which exploded just as I was leaving the reactor. He informed me that former-General Hewley was dead and then mumbled something about Sephiroth, which alerted me that he was in shock. Seeing that the confrontation with his former mentor appeared to have inflicted a degree of psychological trauma I cast Sleep on him and brought him here, sir." Report complete. "Is that satisfactory sir?"

"It will do," came a dry voice from the radio set, which Cloud belatedly realised had been turned on for the duration of his report. Vincent would skin him alive for being so abominably oblivious to his surroundings. "General Sephiroth will be dispatched to Modoeheim to conduct a full inquiry into the deaths of the two former Generals. Third-class Strife, you are ordered to return to Midgar with first-class Fair, who is granted four weeks leave effective immediately and will be subject to an evaluation before returning to duty. He will regardless of the outcome of said evaluation be commended for his loyalty to the company." The voice paused. "Third-class Strife?"

"Sir," Cloud responded neutrally. The voice did not belong to anyone he recognised.

This is the Head of the Department of Administrative Research speaking."

Ah. Veld. Vincent's old partner. Interesting. "Was there something in particular you wanted to ask, sir?"

"AVALANCHE is becoming ever more tiresome to deal with. Would you be prepared to work more closely with the Turks to counter further terrorist action?"

Cloud thought about it. "How did I come to your attention sir? I'm only a third-class with less than a full year in the Company." Not that he didn't know the answer, but he wanted to hear how Veld would answer the question. One of the Turk Rules was 'admit nothing'.

"You have shown skills that compliment those of my Turks and more neutrality to my operatives than almost anyone else in SOLDIER," came the reply.

"Should General Sephiroth and Director Lazard approve these missions I see no reason not to assist your department in performing them," Cloud said carefully. He knew Veld would pick up on all the things he hadn't said, one of which was a silent confirmation that the Valentines were in no way affiliated to the terrorist cell.

"Excellent. I look forward to hearing more about the abilities of General Sephiroth's protégé from my operatives." The radio clicked and Tseng turned it off. Cloud scowled.

"Tseng, if it weren't for our impressionable audience" –he gestured at the infantryman standing silently by the door– "you and I would be having _words_."

Tseng did not move, but the sudden stillness was as good as a flinch from a Turk. The blond shook his head chidingly.

"You sicced your boss on me with no prior warning. How would you feel if I did that to you?"

That did get a proper flinch, even if it was only a slight tightening of the skin around the half-Wutaian's eyes. It seemed that General Sephiroth's ruthlessly protective behaviour in regard to his short protégé even intimidated the Turks.

"You are a hard person to fathom, Strife," Tseng said eventually. It wasn't an apology but it would do. He'd clearly got the blue-suit all in a tizzy because he couldn't fit Cloud into a neat mental box since the blond acted interchangeably like a Turk and a SOLDIER depending on the situation and occasionally like neither.

"You're coming at the problem the wrong way," the blond offered. He knew he bugged the shit out of the entire Department of Administrative Research; he didn't behave the way any underling –Turk or otherwise– should. They didn't like unpredictable things. "I'm a Personage." The army grunt was too far away to catch that whispered afterthought and wouldn't have understood the implied nuances anyway.

Tseng however understood _exactly_ and stiffened. "My apologies," he said after a tense pause.

"Now that's out of the way, who's picking us up?" Cloud asked, slumping against the wall and jamming his hands in his pockets like Zack did when he was trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"Rude is piloting the helicopter and should be here in ten to fifteen minutes," Tseng replied.

"Cool. Once I get back to Midgar I'm going to have a hot shower. How about you?" The question was directed at the grunt by the door and accompanied by a genial smile.

The infantryman seemed a little awed to be spoken to by the student of 'the Great General Sephiroth'. "I like the sound of a hot shower too, sir," he agreed shyly.

"Hot water, nothing like it," Cloud sighed, eyelids drooping. "How 'bout you, Tseng?"

"I will most likely be called upon to report to my superiors," the Turk said non-committally.

"Sounds pretty rarefied company," the blond SOLDIER said absently. There were not many people higher up the food chain than Tseng and most of them were on Vincent's Hit List. Personally Cloud wanted the privilege of killing Heidegger. The man was nominally in charge of SOLDIER above Lazard and the Turks over Veld, but he was an inept moron who sounded like a jackass. A literal jackass: he _brayed_.

Fortunately for Cloud however he was not required to go on trying to keep the conversation afloat as a helicopter became visible against the night sky. The blond SOLDIER heaved Zack over one shoulder and looked back at the last surviving grunt: "Come on; we need to make sure there's a mostly ice and monster free spot for the chopper to land on."

* * *

><p>Once they were all sat inside the helicopter Cloud reapplied the Sleep spell on Zack, closed his eyes and did his best to ignore the feeling of being dragged through the air inside a small, vibrating metal can. Helicopters made him feel dreadful but at least they didn't make him throw up like cargo planes, boats and trucks did. Sure he was uncomfortable but that was pretty much it.<p>

Which reminded him...

"Infantryman?"

"Sir?"

"Did you know the other three personally?"

There was a pause. Cloud did not open his eyes, waiting patiently for an answer. "They were in my unit, sir."

So yes. "That you survived when they did not has nothing to do with your skill or their lack of it. You were lucky. They weren't." The third casualty on the trip had been due to a pair of Bandersnatches the poor grunt hadn't seen until it was too late. "Or maybe you're the unlucky one, since all their problems are over now. Whatever. What I'm saying is, don't blame yourself. Remember them, honour them, but don't dwell on what-ifs. I'm sure you did your best and not even SOLDIERs can do more than that."

His conscience appeased, the blond went back to ignoring his surroundings. Rude was a slightly better pilot than Tseng, but that didn't mean that the SOLDIER was enjoying the experience any more than usual.

Once Midgar was only an hour away Cloud sent Rosso a message from his personal PHS informing her of Zack's breakdown and his intention of dropping the brunet off at her flat. He got a reply back immediately agreeing to the scheme; it seemed Genesis had filled her in already on what had happened. Cloud doubted she would be seriously upset about the incident if it wasn't for Zack: none of the ex-Deepgrounders had managed to bond with Angeal. Rosso only cared about the man because Vincent, Genesis and Zack did, and even then she only cared when he managed to upset the latter trio.

* * *

><p>Rosso's apartment was in sector five in the Slums, not too far from Aerith's church. Rosso had selected the location so she could keep an eye on the focus of Genesis' affections while being conveniently able to spend time with Zack when he was off duty. The redhead had managed to befriend the flower girl and the two spent quite a lot of time together. However when Cloud knocked on the door of the dingy flat at five o'clock in the morning he was let in by a very frazzled looking Rosso, who was up, awake and fully dressed. Cloud wondered if she'd actually slept.<p>

"Genesis said Hollander was drugging Angeal," she said tersely, "but that in no way excuses what the bastard did to Zack."

"No, it doesn't," Cloud agreed, "but it means we may find it less difficult to forgive him when he apologises for his stupidity."

"He's a moron."

"Men often are," the blond said blandly, echoing Vincent as he shifted his unconscious burden. "Speaking of which: one SOLDIER first-class, spelled with Sleep, delivered to your door by Strife Deliveries. I'd ask you to sign for him except I don't have the paperwork on me. He has four weeks leave starting today; where do you want me to put him?"

"In the bedroom; I'll take care of him Cloud, I promise," the redhead said earnestly. "Vincent will get in touch with you as soon as the mess is straightened out. At least, that's what Genesis said she said."

"Good enough for me," Cloud sighed, rolling Zack off his shoulder onto Rosso's bed. "Take care of yourself; you know how to get in touch with me so don't hesitate to call if you need anything flamelet."

"I'll be good. See you blondie!" Rosso called after him as he let himself out.

* * *

><p>Cloud and Tseng come to an understanding, Veld makes overtures, Rosso gets a bit more screen time and Zack is looked after. Plus, more insight into our favourite blond.<p>

I love reading all your reviews, even if their only a few words long (hint hint!).


	58. Recalibration

**Recalibration**

Angeal really hadn't been expecting to wake up again, so finding himself strapped down on a steel table was a most unpleasant surprise. He had after all just pushed Zack into killing him in Modeoheim; the former General had _felt_ his heart stop.

"_Phoenix down_ is such _a wonderful _thing is it _not?_"

Angeal tensed, eyes flickering as he tried to take in his surroundings. A golden-eyed Vincent walked deliberately into his field of vision and _glared_ at him.

"_You_," his sister informed him deliberately, voice a harsh monotone, "are a _moron._"

"I..." Angeal realised that he hadn't even considered how his big sister would take his death. Now strapped to a table that was for too much like the ones in the Science Department and forced to confront his irate sibling, he recognised how serious an oversight it had been not to factor her into his plans. "Vincent-"

"The little _paradox is currently _unavailable," the red-cloaked Turk said coolly, voice harsh in the quiet room, "due to severe anger _management problems. Nominally _her feeling it would _be appropriate _to tear _you limb from _limb_ and feed you to Hellmasker _for pulling such _a stupid stunt._" The voice cracked and split into a duet on the word 'appropriate', confirming that it was indeed Chaos addressing him, which had not been clear at the beginning of the conversation.

Angeal's throat went dry. He'd only seen Hellmasker once and even then only in passing, during a mission when they'd needed information which could only be extracted from a Turk in deep cover. Vincent had been unusually impatient and rather irritable and had responded to the target's stubborn obstinacy by kicking Angeal and his unit out of the interrogation room and awakening the horror. What the chainsaw-wielding Limit Break had done to the unfortunate Turk had shattered the blue-suit's mind to the point that, one they had the required information, Angeal had decapitated the man as a mercy. For Vincent to be _that_ angry with him...

"I'm sorry."

"_You had better be,_" Chaos hissed. "_I am this close to stepping aside and letting her go through with it. __You do not deserve to live; I will not ask what you were thinking as it is clear you were not thinking at all._"

The Dark General cringed. Getting lambasted by the Herald of OMEGA whilst physically incapable of defending oneself was the most terrifyingly surreal experience of his life. His skin felt like it wanted to crawl off his body and wriggle away, far away. Chaos had no personal limits save those he respected for his avatar's sake, so with Vincent angry enough to ignore or defy her perceived limits there was a very real danger that Chaos could get away with doing something supposedly impossible and very permanent to him.

"_So, why try to kill yourself?_" the quasi-summon snapped.

Angeal blinked. Not what he had been expecting, though the fact that Chaos was maintaining Vincent's physical form was slightly reassuring. Less chance of insanely painful Spells being used on him. The restraint however was anomalous; Chaos was not restrained. Ever. He was the king of overkill, the prince of excess.

"_Your continued health and safety is dependent on the quality of __your answer, little ronin,_" the Herald of OMEGA said warningly, sabaton-topped boot tapping an impatient rhythm on the concrete floor. "_Speak or be forever silenced._"

Angeal swallowed hard. "My mother killed herself out of shame for her involvement in Project G, to atone. I-"

"_Your mother was weak,_" Chaos interrupted harshly. "_Too cowardly__ to apologise for her mistakes and spend what remained of her life making amends to those whose lives she had ruined, too proud to admit that __none of her achievements had any true worth and too arrogant to acknowledge that her actions were completely without honour.__ Yes, I know what honour is, little ronin, though I rarely exercise it. She condemned her own flesh and blood to death before he was even born with her unnatural experiments__ yet never once confessed her sins or even admitted that she had made an error in judgement. Suicide is the last resort of coward__s__ who refuse to __stray beyond their perceived limits__ and those too arrogant __to recognise their own mistakes._" The quasi-summon paused, opaque golden eyes never moving from Angeal's cringing form. "_Where is your courage? Are you truly so lacking in humility that death is preferable to admitting your own errors?_"

Angeal felt a wave of guilt swamp him. Chaos was right; to attempt suicide had been cowardly. He was a monster.

"_And now you wallow in guilt and self-pity like a pig in muck,_" Chaos drawled scornfully. "_I refuse to believe that such a pathetic specimen was promoted to first-class on his own merits._"

"I was a damn-fine SOLDIER!" Angeal protested hotly, goaded out of his misery by that blatant slander of his person.

"_You certainly do not act like one,_" Chaos said cruelly. "_I've seen jellyfish with more spine than you are currently demonstrating._"

In that moment there was nothing Angeal wanted more than to punch Chaos in the face. With a Mako-fuelled adrenaline rush he ripped free of his bonds and lunged at the smug being. The quasi-summon slid indolently out of reach.

"_Much better. Now apologise properly._"

"Apologise! You want me to-" Angeal fumed semi-incoherently.

"_To your sister,_" the Herald of OMEGA expanded. "_Your actions opened old wounds in her soul: her Turk mentor when she first entered the company pressured her into killing him __after he was discovered passing information to other companies. She vowed that she would never, ever force another to kill her. For you, her own brother, to do so, well you can imagine, little ronin, how she feels about you right now._"

The Dark General stilled. No wonder Vincent was so incensed: he'd done to Zack what some stone-cold Turk had done to her. Did that make him a cold bastard, to do such a thing to his protégé?

"I'm really, really sorry and I won't do it ever again, I swear," he whispered, ashamed. "How is Zack?"

"_Off-duty with a pending psych exam,_" Chaos said shortly. "_Rosso is looking after him. And cursing your name, just so you know. Do not expect __her to be even remotely civil in the near future._"

"Can I-"

"_No, you may not see him or call him,_" the quasi-summon snarled. "_Use the brain I know you have somewhere inside that thick skull, little ronin. If you write a formal apology to each of those affected I will see to it that they are delivered, but no more than that.__ Even for that small service you will owe me much._"

Angeal slumped, feeling unpleasantly off-balance without the Buster Sword slung across his back. "Very well. Then what?"

Chaos raised an eyebrow; his face was almost ash-grey by this point, having slowly changed from Vincent's ghoulish paleness as the conversation progressed. "_Genesis informed me that once I have finished with you he desires an opportunity to express his own displeasure, little ronin, so that is one letter of apology you will not need to write. As for my sweet paradox, I have no idea how you should go about regaining her trust or if it is even possible. __I suggest you ask to be dispatched to one of the secondary bases to monitor local forces and keep your head down until she can bear looking at you again. That however is just my opinion.__ Do what you will, little ronin._"

Angeal nodded, not bothering to ask about his new nickname; he knew exactly what a ronin was already. Unlike his namesake however it was very clear that suicide was not an option and he would not put it past Chaos to drag him out of the Lifestream and beat him bloody if he actually managed to pull it off. No, he would have to wander across the Planet and man an isolated outpost until his leader could bear to have him around again.

"Is Vincent really that upset?" he asked quietly.

"_Yes_," Chaos said flatly. "_Congratulations little ronin: I have seen her go mad with fury or pain before, but never with grief. Try to avoid repeating the experiment; she does not need her mind any more fractured than it already is_." The gold-eyed quasi-summon walked over to the door on the far side of the room. "_Don't go anywhere: the little mage will be here presently to rant and throw things at you._"

With that the Herald of OMEGA walked out, leaving Angeal to slump against the edge of the steel table and wait for his best friend and cousin to come and beat him up for being such a blithering idiot. The Dark General was more worried about what Genesis would say: The Crimson General had a vicious tongue even on a good day so now, when the man was furiously unhappy with him, it was likely to be mercilessly excoriating.

He did hope that Vincent would be okay. His sister was the most important person in his life now and that she felt so completely betrayed by his actions was a bitter blow, if not entirely unexpected. He might have totally forsaken honour by his selfish actions but that didn't mean he wasn't going to do everything in his power to make it up to her.

* * *

><p>Chaos uses Snark Power to knock some sense into Angeal and we get a little more of Vincent's background. We also get to see Angeal's new nickname. Not so shiny and honourable any more are we?<p>

Angeal will be dropping off the map now. He will eventually return, but not for ages and ages.


	59. Dephasing

**Dephasing**

The next two months drifted past without undue attention on Cloud's part. Zack returned to his regular duties at the appointed time and as said duties rarely intersected with either Cloud's or Sephiroth's, neither saw very much of him at all. As it was all of SOLDIER was very busy dealing with the continued upswing in monster activity. Genesis and his army were lying low so the general consensus within ShinRa was that things would settle down again into something resembling normality.

Cloud personally didn't think anyone with Mako in their veins could ever aspire to such a lofty goal as enjoying a normal existence.

The newest batch of third classes had been inducted into SOLDIER by Zack, who had changed his look after Angeal's death at his hands, however short-lived said death had actually been. The brunet looked and acted much more mature now, although he was still cheerful and friendly to a fault. Cloud suspected that without Rosso to look after him Zack would have been much worse off.

The blond third-class' current main concern was how rushed off his feet Sephiroth was: The Silver General was now responsible for dealing with all Genesis' old paperwork and duties on top of his own. Thankfully Zack had been allowed to take over most of Angeal's responsibilities but Sephiroth still had way too much to do. The blond helped where he could, wading through all the non-classified paperwork with fierce determination and dragging his mentor out of the office for a spar whenever it all got too much and the dragon-eyed first-class started growling under his breath.

So it caught Cloud by surprise when he realised that the anniversary of Shelke's rescue had come and gone and that in less than two months he would have been in the SOLDIER programme for an entire year. Zack would probably insist on there being cake, like he had in December when it had been Sephiroth's birthday. Never mind that Seph had had no idea when he had been born and had only found out because Vincent had retrieved the information from Hojo's notes and put it in his file. The incorrigible spiky-haired first-class had somehow persuaded a helicopter pilot to deliver to the infamous Silver General a chocolate layer cake with twenty five candles and a scribbled 'happy birthday' on the top in green icing to the Wutai outpost they were camping at on the twenty first of December. Seph had been in an odd mood all day afterwards and scared half the garrison shitless by ghosting up behind them and offering them cake. Cloud had not interfered with his mentor's choice of entertainment, preferring to lurk in the background and take pictures with his PHS of the SOLDIERs and regular troupes' expressions when faced with their General armed with slices of chocolate sponge cake.

* * *

><p>Very early in the morning on the twenty eighth of June Cloud was waiting less than patiently on the outskirts of Junon for his latest –Turk assigned– mission. A professor Rayleigh was apparently transporting important SOLDIER data to the Midgar labs. The blond couldn't understand why the chip couldn't go by secure courier or, if the professor had to be the one to take it, why the Science Department hadn't requisitioned a helicopter.<p>

Fortunately, since Cloud was to be her only escort until they reached Midgar, there was no need for them to travel by truck.

"At ease guys," the SOLDIER said easily as the three infantry grunts escorting the professor finally noticed him. "I'll be taking over from here. Professor Rayleigh, would you prefer to travel by chocobo or motorcycle?"

The professor, a moderately attractive woman in her thirties, blinked at the short SOLDIER. "I'm allergic to birds, SOLDIER..?"

"Strife, Cloud Strife," the blond replied after handing over the appropriate paperwork to the departing infantrymen. "Motorbike it is then. If you would just step this way?" He led the professor over to a large vehicle shed and flashed his ID at the guard lounging outside: "Escort duty. I'd like a two-person heavy cycle –plus a helmet for my passenger– to take me to Midgar."

The guard glanced from the blond's ID to the clipboard lying on his desk, then stood and fished a key out of his pocket and opened the shed doors. Inside were a number of trucks, cars and six motorcycles of varying sizes. The guard approached a rather large one that Cloud would never have been able to steer without Mako enhancements, let alone lift.

"Helmets are along the wall; this is bike number four. Drop it off at the Midgar ShinRa transport garage on the outskirts of Sector Eight when you've finished with it," the guard said laconically.

"Will do," Cloud agreed absently, looking over his new ride with a critical and expert eye. He loved motorbikes. Vincent was pretty good at souping up the engines and streamlining or armouring the chassis, but lacked any special passion for motorcycles other than an abiding appreciation for their value as a portable battering ram and highly manoeuvrable getaway vehicle. Her blond student on the other hand cared for them with the obsessive perfectionism Genesis reserved for his wardrobe and Angeal his Buster sword. They were the only motor vehicle in existence which didn't make Cloud even slightly queasy and he doted on them accordingly.

"Good enough shape," the blond eventually conceded. "Got yourself a helmet, professor?"

"Yes," the scientist said, holding up said item. "Why aren't we going by car?"

"I don't do well in enclosed vehicles," Cloud said evenly, still rather miffed that Mako had exacerbated his travel sickness problem rather than fixing it. He swung a leg over the monster bike and readjusted his sword so it could be drawn without clipping either the motorcycle or his passenger. "Get on the back."

Professor Rayleigh put on her helmet and climbed on behind the SOLDIER.

"Hand on the low bars either side rather than around my waist, please: I need to be able to move freely in case we encounter monsters," the third-class corrected her as he fiddled with the ignition. "That's better. Hold on tight; he we go!"

* * *

><p>Cloud was most reluctant to abandon the motorcycle at the ShinRa garage on the outskirts of the Midgar sprawl, but had very little choice: a Turk met them there to escort them to the ShinRa building and as large and powerful as the bike was it couldn't carry three. Losing his transport-slash-siege-weapon made the third-class antsy as it severely reduced his options in the face of a possible attack. Now he would have to stand his ground and defend the lady professor rather than just run down his opponents and escape.<p>

That the Turk was a newbie –to the company if not to combat– did not help either; all of the blond's trap senses were screaming. No vehicle, a long trip through the slums to their destination and expendable help. The SOLDIER loosened his gun and hidden knives surreptitiously then suggested that the Turk lead the party while he took the rear. Said Turk, a tall, ash-haired martial artist with attractive curves and a tomboyish manner, had no objections and immediately took point. From how she moved Cloud could tell that despite being new enough to her blue suit to find it uncomfortable she was in no way new to real combat. A former mercenary perhaps?

The third-class had grown a staggering four inches since his first Mako injection and the aches in his bones suggested he was still gaining height, but the Turk gliding down the road ahead of him was a good four or five inches taller still. Not as tall as Vincent –at six foot the rogue Turk was the tallest woman he'd ever met– but still pretty tall. Pretty good looking as well, though the no-nonsense attitude was slightly off-putting.

It was not very long until Cloud's suspicious paranoia was rewarded by an ambush attempt. Their unusually competent assailants wore black AVALANCHE uniforms with concealing eye visors and felt like SOLDIERs to the blond's unusually sensitive Mako-sense. They also felt empty, like Scarlet's Mako-bots; going through the motions of life without either passion or humanity.

Cloud dispatched two of the pseudo-SOLDIERs with brutal efficiency then chased after the one which had abducted professor Rayleigh, leaving the Turk to finish off her own opponent. The scientist and her data were the focus of the mission; he wasn't there to babysit Veld's newbies.

The SOLDIER third caught up with the kidnapper at the train station and successfully boarded the hijacked train before it gained too much speed. He then drew his Peacemaker in one hand and longest knife in the other and set about hunting down his charge. The train was too confined a space to swing a sword in, which gave him a distinct advantage over the Mako-enhanced drones. Cloud had a sinking feeling that these terrorists –who described themselves as 'Ravens'– were all that was left of the squad of third-classes who had inexplicably gone missing on a routine mission in the desert near Corel about two weeks previously.

Considering that his former comrades were now little more than Mako powered zombies Cloud had no qualms about blasting and dismembering them as efficiently as possible in the pursuit of his goal. The blond eventually located the professor, then found himself in the unenviable position of having to defend the scientist while fighting off two determined Ravens out to exterminate both him and his charge.

The Turk somehow managed to join him just as he was trying to decide whether to run for it or risk going on the offensive, which made the choice a whole lot easier as Cloud now had only one opponent. Said opponent however proved smarter than his comrades and chose to escape off the train rather than go up against the blond third-class on his own. Cloud, a little disappointed –he'd got into his stride by this point and was enjoying himself– took a moment to check on the professor's wellbeing before assisting the Turk in subduing the last remaining Raven. Namely by shooting the man in the head at close range. As the pseudo-SOLDIER was down to the last of his reserves when the bullet hit him, this resulted in his brains being violently ejected out of the other side of his skull. Messy, but effective.

* * *

><p>Once professor Rayleigh had been safely delivered to the Science Department and both Cloud and the Turk –who had finally introduced herself as Carey– were berated by Hojo for letting a Raven steal the data chip. After leaving the greasy scientist's office the blond SOLDIER quietly pulled the blue-suited woman away from the lifts.<p>

"This mission was originally set up to be just you and three infantrymen," the third-class said blandly as he led Carey towards the stairs.

The ash-haired woman said nothing for a few moments as they entered the stairwell and began their descent, her forehead furrowed in thought. "I could have died," she said eventually, "had I had to fight them all off myself."

"Maybe. I really do wonder why they didn't charter a helicopter in the first place if the data was really that important," Cloud mused aloud, more for her benefit than his own. He had been puzzled when Veld had tagged him for this supposedly low-level mission at the last moment. It seemed the Chief Turk suspected a leak somewhere.

"Take care," the blond said seriously before picking up his speed, zipping down the stairs as fast as could safely be managed. He needed to talk to Vincent about AVALANCHE, particularly their newfound bodysnatching habit. They were becoming something of a nuisance.

* * *

><p>Longest ever chapter. We meet a new Turk and Cloud gets some more clues and we get to see a bit more of Seph's highly questionable sense of humour. What more could anyone desire? Other than more frequent updates, of course.<p>

I am doing the best I can.

EDIT: just fixing a few typos and clarifying stuff.


	60. Collision

**Collision**

Late in the evening Sephiroth walked up the stairs towards the apartment Vincent had bought in Draculina's name, feeling tired and headachy. It was early October and over a year since he'd last been allowed time off. Since Genesis and Angeal's defection his workload had more than doubled but at long last he, Zack and Cloud had managed to finish off the backed-up paperwork. Not that the Silver General had actually _seen_ much of Zack in the past six months; they'd not done more than hurry past eachother in corridors since the invasion of Midgar by Genesis' forces back in April.

Cloud was progressing exceptionally well within SOLDIER: the blond had already been recommended for promotion by four other first-classes who had gone on missions with him as well as by the ever-elusive Veld. That recommendation was worth as much as the other four put together but also a source of considerable suspicion. Or it would have been had anyone other than Director Lazard and Sephiroth himself knew about it. As the chocobo-haired teen's mentor the Silver General was not allowed to push for his student's promotion but he knew Cloud was ready for it. More than ready: the third-class won all spars against his fellow third-classes and two out of three fights against second-classes. The blond was a natural swordsman with a highly variable combat style and a knack for Materia, any Materia. He could even give Sephiroth a run for his money and sometimes scored fatal hits on the Silver General in spars.

Considering how much ShinRa's only remaining General had on his mind it wasn't altogether unsurprising that he's failed to notice the subtle signs indicating that Valentine was at home and entertaining company as Draculina. The faint sounds that drifted through the well-insulated walls –undetectable to all save first-class SOLDIERs– for instance, as well as the fact that the ageless Turk did not open the front door for him despite the lights being on. Sephiroth however did not consider that anything out of the ordinary might be going on and absent-mindedly let himself into the chic Sector Two flat, shed his coat and sword onto the coffee table and wandered into the kitchen to raid the cupboards for green tea. The SOLDIER had no idea how or why she did it but Valentine always had fresh green tea in the kitchen of wherever she happened to be staying, both this one and the one in the safe house on the edge of the Plate in Sector One. Sephiroth had taken to visiting this apartment whenever he had a late night at the office as it was reasonably near the ShinRa building, had a well-stocked kitchen and a spare bedroom for him to crash in. That his occasional presence here gave credence to the cover story of Draculina being his sister was just a bonus.

It was only after a relaxing cup of warm green liquid that the Silver General became aware that the sounds he'd been hearing and automatically dismissing ever since entering the apartment were actually coming from inside one of the rooms rather than from the neighbours. Considering the nature of said sounds, it appeared that the boyfriend Draculina was rumoured to have did in fact exist.

He blushed at the realisation, dumping his teacup in the sink. While he'd always been intellectually aware that his mother had a sex-life of some kind –considering how much Mako she had in her system it was a given– that did not mean he had ever wanted evidence. It was embarrassing to think of one's parents that way, even if said parent was an ex-Turk with a flair for infiltration and sabotage.

Sephiroth was just about to discreetly make himself scarce when his brain finally recognised the voice of the person Valentine was getting intimate with. Said recognition had him reversing his retreat, snatching Masamune of the coffee table and storming into the master bedroom, irrational fury boiling in his veins.

There was no way that SOLDIER second-class Kunsel could possibly be good enough to date Valentine!

* * *

><p>Sephiroth had no idea what happened in between him throwing open the bedroom door and finding himself pinned face-down on the carpet. All he could remember was red and green and a thundering drumming sound. Something fairly serious had to have happened though for Valentine-as-Draculina to get Masamune away from him, dislocate his left wrist and both knees and immobilise him with both hands above his head and his cheek grinding into the carpet.<p>

"Seph? You back yet?" Draculina's Junon accent masked Valentine's Kalm-and-Wutai just as the scent of night-blooming jasmine and absinthe almost hid his mother's usual gunpowder, oil and steel. The heavy scent of sex lingering in the air made him growl and wrinkle his nose in disgust, but the blinding rage did not resurface.

"I hear you," he grumbled. "Let me up."

"Not just yet," Draculina replied cooly. "You just went alpha dragon on my boyfriend; I'd rather not suffer a repeat performance if it can be helped. You are _so_ in the doghouse for this, mister."

"Boyfriend?" the Silver General repeated dangerously, ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach that suggested his instincts had just twigged how extremely pissed off at him his only parent was right now.

"You know him as Kunsel, SOLDIER second class. You may not inflict or threaten bodily harm of any kind, nor order or suggest others do so on your behalf," came the steely reply from his captor. "If he hurts me I will tear him limb from limb myself. Kunsel, are you okay?"

"I'll live," came the pained and almost flawless Midgar accent of the only SOLDIER above third-class the Silver General had never seen without a helmet. The scent of blood suggested the second-class was injured; not that Sephiroth minded. It was worrying however that he did not remember inflicting the damage. That didn't sit right.

"There's a Restore in the second draw of the bedside cabinet," the incognito Turk said briskly, casually grinding her son's face further into the carpet with an iron grip. Sephiroth could tell his mother was _extremely displeased_ with him for interrupting her private time. The aura of irritation had an undercurrent of malice, suggesting she fully intended to get even. Possibly by siccing one of her less restrained inmates on him.

"You did not tell me it was Kunsel that you were dating," Sephiroth said, unable to express himself in a way that did not sound accusing.

"I didn't want the overprotective Silver General scaring him off because he _mistakenly_ thought Kunsel wasn't good enough for me," came the tart reply. "Don't start; he's smart, interesting and fun to be with. I love him for who he is and ultimately do not care what you think in this matter. And if you let this interfere with SOLDIER business I will hunt you down and wreak devastating vengeance. Do you hear me Sephiroth Camael Valentine?"

This was said with such vehement sincerity that Sephiroth was taken aback. Never mind that this was only the second time she'd ever called him by his full name.

"I mean it Seph," Draculina warned him. "If anything I can trace back to you happens to Kunsel I will make it my personal mission to drive you 'round the twist."

"Do you really love him?"

There was a heavy pause and a wistful sigh. "I did say so, didn't I? I truly believe I do. He matters to me."

"Then I promise not to kill him, main him or arrange for him to be killed or maimed, or even suggest that I wouldn't mind seeing him killed or maimed," the Silver General muttered grudgingly into the carpet. "But if he hurts you all bets are off."

"Fair enough, Kunsel conceded from across the room.

"Good." Sephiroth was released and his wrist and knees were set back into place. He was about to try and get up when he was lifted bodily to his feet and propelled out of the door and into the hallway. "Now scram." Masamune was handed to him before the door was slammed in his face.

The Silver General blinked owlishly at the closed door, pinched the bridge of his nose and went to retrieve his coat. He would track down Cloud so he could wind down with his protégé. Well, so he could complain about his mother's taste in boyfriends without spreading it all over Midgar, anyway. Kunsel was barely older than Sephiroth himself was!

* * *

><p>Sephiroth finds out about Kunsel and sparks fly. Fortunately for all involved, limbs do not. We also get a glimpse of the Silver General's rarely-seen and terribly dangerous temper.<p>

Camael is a non-biblical archangel, specifically a warlike one who punishes those who go against god. All three generals have vaguely Hebrew names so I maintained the theme. I can give the other two middle names as well, maybe.


	61. Fallout

**Fallout**

The next three months were unusually tense for those members of the extended Valentine Clan working for and around the ShinRa Electric Company. Sephiroth is pensive, occasionally absent-minded and usually frowning, clawed nails tapping impatient staccato beats on nearby surfaces. He is also marginally more paranoid than can be considered normal and stares thoughtfully at second-class Kunsel whenever the SOLDIER is nearby. This makes the ever-helmeted SOLDIER extremely twitchy in a 'should I be running for the hills?' kind of way.

* * *

><p>Cloud knows exactly what the problem is and puts his life and health on the line to rouse the Silver General from his brooding, help with the interminable paperwork that breeds in his mentor's office and join the slit-pupilled man on whatever mission Director Lazard has set up for the last ShinRa General <em>this<em> time. The blond also socialised with Kunsel every now and then, gossiping about the latest terrorist incursions, monster sightings and the rumours seeping out of the Science Department like putrid fluids from a month-old corpse.

* * *

><p>Zack is blithely unaware of the source of the trouble and only picks up on the second-hand tension pervading the SOLDIER department in the vaguest of ways. His timetable and duties are such that he and Sephiroth rarely even cross paths so he does not have the opportunity to discern that the Silver General is the fount of the lingering unease and uncertainty that seems to drift through the corridors of the ShinRa building, lowering morale and encouraging the rumour mill to greater and more extravagant heights. As far as the spiky-haired first-class is concerned the SOLDIERs are on edge due to the whispers of abductions and brainwashing by terrorists.<p>

* * *

><p>Kunsel is much more nervous, though he at least has a legitimate foundation on which to build his paranoia. The memory of the Silver General lunging at him with Masamune, moving at impossible speed with eyes wide and insane, has featured prominently in his more recent nightmares. He had guessed that Draculina was Sephiroth's sister and had been aware of the possibility that the General might not be pleased to find that one of his men was involved with his sibling, but those thoughts had not prepared him for the reality. He had received a pair of deep gashes in that instant of primal terror when he failed to dodge quite fast enough: one between his ribs high on his left side, the other deep in the flesh of his upper arm. He could attest that both edges of the legendary blade were razor-sharp and counted himself lucky to still be among the living.<p>

Had he moved any slower the sword would have pierced his heart.

Almost as frightening had been how fast Draculina had reacted to the threat, dislocating first her brother's wrist with one hand then kicking his legs from under him with a violent and perfectly timed swipe. She had pinned the Silver General to the bedroom floor before Kunsel even realised he was wounded. The second-class _knew_ now that his lover was heavily Mako-enhanced, possibly just as much as Sephiroth himself was. Nothing else could explain her inhuman speed and casual display of impossible levels of strength. No-one in the history of SOLDIER had ever been able to physically overpower the Silver General.

* * *

><p>Vincent was thoughtful. She had honestly not anticipated such a violent confrontation between her son and her lover, though in hindsight she should have. Up until now she had never truly forced her son to recognise her authority as both his parent and his superior in combat, ingraining in his mind her position as the alpha female of their twisty little family. So it really shouldn't have surprised her that he took her dating someone he perceived as lower on the food chain that him so very poorly; to his now more animal instincts it had been a natural reaction. Fortunately she'd moved fast enough to prevent casualties and severe property damage and had been able to cut of Galian Beast's burning ire at having her authority challenged by her own cub.<p>

Unlike the SOLDIER members of her little clan, Vincent had plenty of opportunities for distraction as the year rolled to a close. Rude's cute lady-friend was revealed to be a spy for AVALANCHE, there was a major Kimara Bug infestation in the sewers and Sephiroth's birthday came and went. Zack once again ensured the Silver General had a cake, even though he was only able to join the party for an hour before being called away. Sephiroth blew out candles, cautiously sampled the sticky ginger loaf and pronounced it delicious before handing it out to all those present. He was rather more bemused by the brunet first-class' taste in gifts; a coffee mug with 'Don't piss me off: I'm running out of places to hide the bodies' written on it was either disturbingly knowledgeable or hilariously off target, depending on whether you believed in prophetic foreshadowing.

Cloud gave his mentor a pair of rare Dragon Scales he had either bought or pickpocketed from a wealthy merchant and Vincent gave her son some green tea, since he was always stealing hers. She also handed over six greetings cards with nothing written inside them, one each from Genesis, Angeal, Weiss, Nero, Rosso and Shelke. Sephiroth was particularly intrigued by Weiss' card, which had a detailed and realistic picture of a Dark Dragon on it.

* * *

><p>In fact, Vincent had been so busy trying to ferret out AVALANCHE and attempting to discern what on earth Chaos was up to –the herald of OMEGA was just too quiet of late– that she almost missed the increased activity and new personnel going in and out of the Department of Administrative Research, also known as the Investigative Sector of General Affairs or just 'the Turks'. There were now considerably more Turks than there had been a year ago and all of the newcomers were fairly competent, capable and based out of Midgar itself. In fact, the avatar of Chaos might have missed the change entirely were it not for the steady increase in clientele frequenting a certain pub in Wall Market under the Plate.<p>

The red-eyed laboratory escapee was able to ratchet up the number of confirmed elite Turks from eight to thirteen after a few well-calculated snooping sessions, not counting the off-duty Avro, who was still under house arrest in Costa del Sol.

The Turks interested Vincent in a way no other group of ShinRa personnel could; she had been one of them once upon a time and it amused her to keep track of the intricate scheming of her old Department. Veld proved the only face she recognised from before her imprisonment, but that was hardly surprising considering the Department's mortality rate.

Surreptitious eavesdropping revealed the names of her new colleagues: Levi was the real name of the older half of the duo Cloud had dubbed 'the crazy redheads'. He loved motorcycles and used an EMR just like his younger brother Reno. The short blonde with the bob and a gun was Maria, elder sister to the girl who ran the Wall Market pub. The former thug with the wild hairstyle and two handguns was called Kirian and really didn't like following 'official procedure', mainly because he clearly could never remember what it was.

Then there was Caridad –Carey– the ash-haired former mercenary who'd gone on a mission with Cloud and was the most recent recruit. She was a joy to watch: a true professional with a cool head and a knack for high kicks. Seto the swordsman, Amber the knife-fighter and Rude –who only used his fists– Vincent was already familiar with, having shadowed each of them at one time or another. Seto he knew best, since they'd spent several months together two years ago when the quiet swordsman had taught Cloud the basics of his combat style.

The last three newbies were Hilary, a blond optimist who used nunchaku, Elisaveta, an excitable platinum blonde from a wealthy family with a knack for shotguns and Natalya –who had introduced herself to Zack as Cissinei back in April– who had been picked out of an orphanage and raised to fight with the oversized traditional Wutai shuriken.

Vincent just knew that Veld was not drafting all of these talented people just to fight AVALANCHE; half of them would have been enough for that. No, Veld was solidifying his support base with a strong cast of loyal followers. The only possible reason for such a strong task force to be created was either to carry out a coup or in order to enforce a massive cover-up. Or maybe both.

While the coup idea was possible considering the Turks were raising old man Shinra's son foe him the avatar of Chaos was currently leaning towards the cover-up: Veld had known her very well back when they had been partners and she hadn't changed all that much. It followed that, on being made aware of her involvement, he would be able to make an educated guess at her goals. That he seemed to be preparing to deal with the eventual fallout rather than trying to head her off was a pleasant surprise and boded very well for his survival; she didn't want to kill her former lover but would have done it if it had proved necessary for Sephiroth's survival. If Veld was going to turn a blind eye then Vincent saw no reason to kill him or any of his underlings, provided they did not interfere with her vengeance.

Of course Chaos loved spying on the oblivious blue-suits as well, though Vincent couldn't shake the feeling that the Herald of OMEGA's motives were rather more suspect. Possibly even sinister. That Reno, the 'little pest', was his favourite just unnerved the red-eyed avatar all the more.

* * *

><p>Time passes. Plots mature. Life goes on. Plus, more on the Turks.<p>

Remember, reviews show you care!


	62. Phase Transition

**Phase Transition**

The eight months since Angeal's attempt at suicide and resurrection by Vincent had been fairly quiet for Nero and the rest of the fugitives at the new underground Banora hideout. True, there had been a tension to Genesis for the first six weeks after his lifelong friend's banishment to the base situated in the wilderness between Corel and Cosmo Canyon, but after Vincent stopped by for a few days in June the Crimson General had relaxed properly and really settled into managing the army of former SOLDIERs.

The data drives Nero and Weiss helped Cloud steal back in April proved invaluable to all the surviving Deepgrounders as they contained not only everyone's complete medical records but also the general dosage information the scientists had been using to determine who gat which Mako injections and when, all ninety-six pages of it. Even better, there was also all the information on the psychological programming –read brainwashing– that various individuals had been subjected to. As the most technically minded Valentine within several hundred miles of the base, Weiss had sorted through the mountain of medical data and imputed everything into the relevant and accessible files on the closed system used by the handful of qualified medical personnel Genesis had working for him. Fortunately said personnel included a specialist Mako technician or else they would have had significantly more difficulty.

Shelke, as the best Synaptic Net Diver despite her young age, was the one who actually did the deprogramming. Her eleventh birthday had only been a few weeks previous to her appointment but she was nonetheless making considerable progress in diffusing the mental traps and control points in her patients' minds. She was very careful, very cautious and never took risks without Weiss there in another VR helmet to back her up. Genesis had been a little leery of placing his SOLDIERs sanity in the hands of a child and her teenage supervisor but recognised that they were capable enough. More pragmatically, they were all he had.

Their successes were very good for morale: Shelke had already deactivated several dozen potentially nasty hidden triggers and Weiss made a point of calling people in again to check for more insidious programming that might have been put in and not mentioned in the paperwork: laboratory politics at its most unpleasant. Shelke had discovered a few of those already.

* * *

><p>Since Rosso was keeping herself busy out in Midgar well away from everyone in the family except Sephiroth and occasionally Vincent, Nero found himself left largely to his own devices. True, he did spend time with Weiss whenever his older brother was free but that wasn't often as the white-haired teen actually had a proper job now. As a result the youngest Valentine divided his time between training and honing his skills and exploring the various new things he was now allowed to do, like have hobbies. His physical training he divided between the shooting range and the dojo, practicing in both with his wing-like metal arms and without. He also meditated on his power, practicing at using his Darkness –what Genesis called 'Pocket Space'– to move various objects and living things around. When not training he listened to music, went exploring or read books; Genesis had given all of the former Deepgrounders timetables that included specific slots on weekdays and extra time on weekends for recreational activities, then persuaded Vincent to fiddle the electric locking system so they couldn't get into the training rooms with their keycards during those periods.<p>

Fiction was a recent discovery for the youngest Valentine and he had found that he loved reading stories. He wasn't a fan of poetry like Rosso or Genesis but he did like prose, especially fairytales and ancient myths. On his fourteenth birthday in the middle of May Cloud had given him a volume of Nibel folk tales he'd had posted specially from Nibelheim by his mother. Nero had devoured them with gusto and written a careful letter of thanks to Mrs Strife, who believed Nero to be one of Cloud's fellow SOLDIERs in Midgar. Te stories of Odin, Thor, Loki and the other gods were harsh and occasionally brutally unfair, very unlike the tales of fairies and magic from Kalm and Junon.

Before being rescued from Deepground Nero had doggedly and single-mindedly followed Weiss' lead in absolutely everything; his white-haired elder sibling had been the leader and in the cannibalistic and perilous environment of the underground laboratories questioning the chain of command was tantamount to suicide. Since the rescue however he had been immersed in a much safer environment and encouraged to ask questions and make his own decisions. He was gradually learning to do so, though it was nerve-wracking at times. One of the first of his choices had been to read what _he_ wanted to rather than just what was required as part of his education. Vincent had found the young teen hunched over a computer terminal reading a hacked online novel and offered him access to the Valentine family library, with particular emphasis on the generations-worth of childrens' stories. Nero had accepted and swiftly discovered the wild and wonderful world of children's fiction; he never looked back.

* * *

><p>Out of all the Valentines Nero was the one who saw Chaos the most, other than Vincent that is. It wasn't exactly a personal thing: the quasi-summon hunted him down every single time Vincent came to visit and made a point of testing the young teen's command of his Dark powers, often almost to breaking point. The Herald of OMEGA had back in March pronounced the suit that supplied him with Mako as '<em>a damnable crutch for the weak and pathetically lacking in control<em>' and all but bullied Nero into learning to tap the planet's energy without it. Which was about as easy as singing along to a tune you couldn't hear and in fact hadn't ever heard at all. It took weeks to even _find_ the Lifestream.

The first time he actually located the power Chaos wanted him to access Nero almost lost himself in the green clamour and had to be rescued. The slit-pupilled teen found the experience soul-chillingly scary and whimpered hysterically about the voices, the green and the undertow until his ashy-skinned tutor placed cold fingers on his temples and sucked the terrifying awareness away. It took months of trial and error –mostly error– but Nero eventually learned to meditate in a way which enabled him to tap the Lifestream without being overwhelmed by the voices: he filtered the power through his Darkness, which prevented the voices from reaching him.

That managed, Chaos proved that he was indeed the manifestation of some unspecified evil and informed his student that he expected '_the little shade_' to be able to maintain his carefully balanced meditative focus in combat. After all, if he couldn't access his abilities in a fight he wouldn't be allowed to do missions.

Given that Rosso was out on a long-term deep cover mission in Midgar protecting Genesis' girlfriend and Weiss had been all but guaranteed an opportunity to study Mako Science and Psychology with a sideline in Limit Theory at Junon University –which would also be done in deep cover– Nero did _not_ want to be left behind. Even if catching up involved an exercise unpleasantly akin to singing Wutai Opera perfectly in tune and on the beat whilst fighting off people who could hear neither the music nor his voice. Coordinating an extra pair of arms at the same time pushed the difficulty level from 'punishingly hard' to 'practically impossible' but the untidy-haired teen had no intention of backing down from the challenge.

* * *

><p>He was at least allowed out of the complex every now and then for fresh air: by December he was deemed sufficiently competent to be permitted to do more than help harvest the Banora Whites that grew on trees all over the land above and around the base, stretching miles in all directions. Of course, his leash was only extended as far as the monthly Mideel delivery run on the truck and then the cargo vessel taking Banora apple juice, cider and crates of fruit to the aforementioned town and a disguise was still required, but it was more freedom than he'd ever had before.<p>

Mideel had some very nice shops and the spending money he'd gotten both from Vincent and his apple picking wages meant he could actually buy things. It also had very nice monsters to practice fighting against, which was no longer possible around the base due to the large numbers of largely unoccupied SOLDIERs who rotated through for medical checkups. The Banora base was also Genesis' headquarters and he was as hard on the local monsters as a whole squad of SOLDIERs.

While shopping Nero bought himself a jem ring, a few antidotes and a crystal bangle. He also pocketed an odd-looking ring with a skull on it he had found in the dirt outside the accessory shop. The ring had a hum to it that resonated with the shreds of Dark that flitted invisibly around him even when his power was fully suppressed.

The morning after he and the rest of the SOLDIERs who'd volunteered as cheap workforce took the cargo vessel back along to the coast to the tiny port then back to the base through the sprawling cave network that connected the base to the village of Banora and numerous other hidden outposts. Nero was silently entertained by the fact that the purple fruit his big brother and sister so adored were financing the Valentines' schemes for the overthrow of the ShinRa monopoly. Apples seemed so... benign.

* * *

><p>Meet Nero. He's far, far more passive than his siblings, much more like how canon Vincent was. He's also heavily intellectual and an introvert, though with a core of pure steel. This makes his less emotive and very difficult to read. Unless Chaos is doing the reading that is; Mr Glowy-Gold-Eyes is quite possibly the only person capable of getting Nero's goat and needles him just enough that Nero <em>knows<em> Chaos does it purely for entertainment.


	63. Ergodicity

**Ergodicity**

After the debrief of the frankly disastrous mission to take out the AVALANCHE base at Icicle Inn, Zack decided to take the stairs rather than the lift. He needed to think things over.

Ever since starting to date Rosso Valentine Zack had learned a lot, most of which had very little to do with romance or women. For one he was now a convert to Rosso's views on heroics. Not that the pretty redhead had anything against heroes or the time-and-tested strategy of charging headlong into battle; rather she felt that in order for heroics to be successful proper timing was a must.

Of course, in order to time something properly a person needs information on the situation they will be charging into. Zack had started paying considerably more attention to the things people talked about since Rosso had pointed that out and had been surprised by how much information was readily available around ShinRa headquarters to anyone actually listening. Even more amazing was that when he acted harmless, sympathetic and slightly dense people would almost trip over eachother to spill confidential information while talking to him, whether so as to appear superior or just to gain a little sympathy.

However when cheerful cluelessness was not enough to prise secrets out of people there was always the third option: positioning oneself so as to 'accidentally' overhear confidential or otherwise suppressed information. Zack was perfectly capable of keeping his mouth shut –he'd never have made it to first class if he wasn't– so did not see a problem in acquiring extraneous details that never quite made it to the public forum. He had a whole lot of secrets he was keeping already; what were a few more in the grand scheme of things?

In fact knowing the extra stuff could be a genuine life-saver: If he hadn't known all the highly restricted stuff Cloud had privately told him about Ravens just in case the Icicle Inn mission would have gone completely pear-shaped. Losing Sebastien and Essai had been horrible but they had been the only SOLDIER casualties.

* * *

><p>Zack paused thoughtfully on the landing next to the door leading to the Turk floor. The mission had initially belonged to the Turks until the men on the ground had rescued Essai and Sebastien from the AVALANCHE base the first time around, after which the SOLDIERs had been called in. Zack had led the attack, found the terrorists inexplicably ready for them and retreated. Essai and Sebastien had been re-kidnapped, the first-class had lead a second, more successful assault then been sidetracked by having to rescue a Turk who looked like Reno's big brother from a Raven-ified Sebastien. The base had then exploded, making the mission a total loss.<p>

From what he'd overheard from PHS conversations whilst pretending to sleep on the way back to Midgar it seemed likely that the Turks would be taking the blame for the casualties and presumed information leak. A year ago Zack would have loudly protested the unfairness of this scapegoating but he'd changed since then. Life wasn't fair and part of being a hero was doing what you could to even the odds against those who stacked the deck. Someone had to have leaked the information but until he knew who it was there wasn't anything he could do except make sure he knew what was going on.

With all this in mind the first-class pushed open the door and strolled into the Department of Administrative Research looking for all the world as if he was running an errand and belonged there.

Something else Zack had picked up recently –mostly from Cloud– was the myriad ways in which Materia could be used outside of actual battle, especially around unenhanced people who couldn't feel the Spells being cast. Manipulate, for example, could get you all sorts of interesting things and create all sorts of problems for other people when they didn't realise you had it. Similarly Transform could be very useful if you needed to get through spaces fully grown humans couldn't fit into or onto things which wouldn't otherwise bear your weight. It was in fact the most useful Materia you could have if you wanted to overhear private conversations.

Exit was a favourite: it enabled a person to break into places without leaving a trail that could be followed so long as you knew _exactly_ where it was you needed to land. Of course it was also great for getaways but that was a given. Seal was also fairly handy as a Silence Spell deadened _all_ the noise the victim made rather than just cutting off their ability to speak; cast Silence on yourself and nobody could hear you at all.

Enemy Away was by far the most amusing to use in crowded spaces as it responded directly to the wielder's idea of who they didn't want to be seen by. For example, Zack was not strictly speaking supposed to be in the Turk Department and did not want to be seen –and therefore remembered– walking towards Tseng's office, which made anyone likely to notice him doing so was automatically 'the enemy'. Having an Enemy Away Materia active as he strolled towards his destination meant that the Turks who might have challenged him or stared suspiciously just walked past without even noticing him, which was really neat.

* * *

><p>The first class paused outside the door he'd been aiming for, cast Silence on himself and leaned forward to press his ear to the wood. <em>Nope, far too conspicuous. Plan B it is<em>. He moved back a step, used the handle of his Buster sword to lift and slide open a ceiling panel then jumped up into the gap. Halfway through the created hole the beamed groaned under the SOLDIER's weight, prompting him to cast Mini on himself. Newly chibified, Zack scurried deftly through the narrow crawlspace until he could hear Tseng shuffling paperwork beneath him.

Zack knew that the tilak-marked Turk was the de-facto second in command of his department. This meant that once the President had finished with Veld the older Turk would most likely come and find Tseng so as to talk about whatever it was that had been said. The first-class wasn't too bothered about understanding what was said; he could always turn to Cloud for a translation.

It would have come as a surprise to the entire population of Midgar –and especially his recently-established fanclub– that Zack Fair could, in fact, sit still without running his mouth. For whole minutes at a time, even. Zack had to renew the Mini while he waited in the dark, but the sound of footsteps in the hall finally approached and someone let themselves into Tseng's office.

"Veld-" came Tseng's soft voice, confirming the identity of the visitor. Zack's ears pricked up.

"The President has relieved me of my duties as Department Head," Veld said, his voice bland with only the faintest hint of strain, "and transferred me to another department so as not to encourage lack of confidence in the chain of command. Heidegger will be issuing orders in future but you, Tseng, are in charge of the Turks."

The door opened and shut and Veld's footsteps faded down the hall. Zack heard a sigh, then more footsteps as the door opened and closed again. The SOLDIER swiftly let himself out of the space inside the ceiling, cancelled all the Spells he had cast on himself and left the floor. Spiky would be around here somewhere and he would know what to do about what Zack had just heard.

* * *

><p>Locating the short bland proved unexpectedly difficult: Zack had to trek through the VR room and half-a-dozen other training rooms before he found a SOLDIER who knew where Cloud had gone. Out on a mission to Kalm with Seph, as it happened, and not due back for several hours. Since it was his day to hang around headquarters and he didn't really want to talk about this over the phone –it wasn't urgent enough to risk being overheard– Zack found a mostly empty training room and diligently practiced the kata Angeal had taught him and Cloud for the Buster, various tricks he'd picked up from Genesis and the moves Sephiroth was in the process of teaching him whenever the two of them had time, which wasn't often. Half the time the Silver General sent Cloud to teach Zack a new move and texted the first-class a short apology, citing overwork and being double-booked by the management. Zack felt sorry for the man: where before the three Generals had divided the social unpleasantness and propaganda calls between them, Seph now had to do all of them on top of the necessary SOLDIER stuff.<p>

He was however quietly pleased that the Silver General still made the effort to teach him new stuff, even if it was by proxy most of the time. The overall quality of SOLDIER had fallen significantly since Genesis defected with most of the competent veterans below first-class. The Turks had 'recruited' –read press-ganged– a whole lot of new people to replace those who had defected and cadet recruitment standards had been relaxed slightly –just the physical and intelligence related ones– so as to get in as many new SOLDIERs as possible, but the newcomers were nothing special. Well, other than that Azul guy, but he was just effin' massive! Nine foot five and built like a pro wrestler, Azul was not in any way average except perhaps in intelligence.

However despite Azul throwing the curve, the average SOLDIER was less accomplished than had been the case even two years previously and the extremely low levels of accomplished veterans still in the department meant that the new guys weren't being pushed to improve as hard as they should be. Ifrit's Hells, there were only about a dozen first-classes left including him and Seph and most of them didn't have the time to whip the thirds into shape. Zack knew all kinds of nifty ways to take advantage of his superior strength and senses that he'd picked up from various more experiences SOLDIERs over the years, none of which were actually explained in the standard introductory sessions. He was still learning new stuff even now. Without the handing down of those little tips SOLDIER as a whole would become far less capable and versatile a unit.

In fact, Zack latest teacher had been none other than Rosso: she'd finally relaxed enough to divulge a little of her experiences in Deepground. Zack had recently discovered that being Mako-enhanced meant you really could rip someone's arm off and beat them to death with it. You could also rip off other appendages like legs, jaws and –most cringe-worthy of all– balls. Rosso had done half of the above to a scientist who'd tried to drug and rape her, then the other half to an insane fellow test subject whom she'd been locked in with as punishment for killing her aggressor. She'd also bashed the proto-Beast's brains out on the floor just to make sure.

His girlfriend could be _really_ scary when she put her mind to it.

* * *

><p>It you really want to know what 'Ergodicity' means, look up 'ergodic' on wikipedia. It's a quantum thing.<p>

Well, I read **Escape Plan Green** by **Mistic 777** and my Zack decided he wanted to do all that stuff too, 'cause it looked fun. So this chapter came into being; I hope they don't mind that I made use of their concept.


	64. Parity Inversion

**Parity Inversion**

Vincent was in Junon again and the city was under attack from AVALANCHE, again. Unlike last time however the Turks were hampered by incompetent leadership in the form of Heidegger and were losing rather than winning. The arrogant head of the Public Safety Department was preventing the blue-suits from coordinating their attacks and keeping them on the defensive until the army arrived, a strategy they were utterly unsuited to. Quite a few of the smarter Turks were calmly bending their orders in order to maintain the advantage.

While professionally irritated by Heidegger's foolishness Vincent was not particularly bothered by the carnage taking shape below. Any Turk worth their training knew that results, not methods, were what mattered to the Company. Besides, adversity was good for the soul, in the immortal words of her former teacher.

She didn't much care for AVALANCHE either, to be honest. Destroying the infrastructure people relied on for survival would not get the public on their side or persuade ShinRa to stop using Mako as an energy source. The people running that particular terrorist cell were either shockingly naive or were using the holier-than-thou attitude as a front for less acceptable activities. Their use of the brainwashed SOLDIERs that Cloud identified as Ravens indicated the latter being more likely than the former.

Vincent herself didn't really care one way or another, but Cloud did care and in the long term it was probably a good idea to ensure that the planet would be habitable well into the future considering she was unlikely to die any time soon. Her gradually expanding sustainable energy projects were finally starting to become more productive and economically profitable, which would eventually tempt the ShinRa General Electric Company into investing. Energy costing absolutely nothing and requiring less safety features and infrastructure than Mako would appeal to their corporate greed, allowing them to reduce costs across the board whilst still charging the customer the market price. _Never underestimate the power of greed._

The Avatar of Chaos wasn't in Junon for the fight, however much her tenant was enjoying the carnage. She was there because Avro Lancaster was going to be there.

Veld had not been content to take his demotion and reassignment lying down, refusing to sink into obscurity so that he could be quietly killed off at the President's discretion. Instead he set about consolidating his power base and calling in favours in preparation for a counter strike. Chaos had projected that the bomber nicknamed 'the god of the battlefield' would be involved in said counter strike due to temporarily being outside the Department hierarchy, and had convinced Vincent to visit Costa del Sol in order to lay out a counter-offer for the strawberry blond Turk. Avro had listened, bargained and eventually agreed to the red-eyed avatar's proposal, conditional on Veld actually releasing him from house arrest as the Herald of OMEGA predicted.

As it happened however the plan had gone ahead perfectly and roughly as expected. Veld had dragged Avro out of 'retirement' and the bomber was even now blowing up terrorists while Veld made his way to Midgar to see the President. Once the AVALANCHE insurgents had been driven off Vincent would retrieve her newest colleague and give the smooth-talking blond a lift to his new workplace near Cosmo Canyon and introduce him to Angeal. Avro would be in charge of preventing industrial espionage and spreading misinformation on both Genesis' army and Valentine Industries; a massive task, but the bomber had confessed to being bored.

Blood red eyes coolly scanning the fighting from her perch on top of the Mako Cannon, the rogue Turk waited patiently for the right moment to extract her latest employee.

* * *

><p>As of the morning of the third of February, year 0002 ShinRa standard time, Veld was considerably less than happy with the status quo. Two weeks previously he had been removed from his position as Head of the Investigative Department of General Affairs and transferred away from his men. Judicious application of leverage –blackmail for the uninitiated– had enabled Veld to be reinstated, but his fourteen-day absence had brought to the fore all kinds of problems that he now had to deal with.<p>

For one, Heidegger's poorly managed defence of Junon had killed off a dozen Turks and injured another thirty, halving his available forces. This shortage of able-bodied personnel meant that everyone not confined to a hospital bed would be clocking serious quantities of overtime until those critically injured recovered and new recruits were found. Thankfully none of his elite agents had been hospitalised.

For another, they still hadn't found who was leaking information to AVALANCHE, though Hojo was definitely in communication with someone outside the Company. The Turk analysts, whom Heidegger was not even aware _existed_, had traced certain data leaks to his office computer. As it wasn't his private lab computer the greasy sadist could claim that someone was setting him up, though considering how universally feared the scientist was the excuse was laughable.

The third cause of concern was Avro Lancaster's disappearance from Junon. The bomber had aided his embattled colleagues then vanished into thin air before Veld could draw him back into the fold. Unfortunately since the blond was listed in the Company records as being 'on detached duty', the official pseudonym for being either dead or undercover, indicating that the Turk in question was not drawing pay. Avro had been 'on detached duty' ever since being put under house arrest in Costs del Sol, which made hunting him down unfeasible since the President wouldn't pay to find someone who wasn't costing the Company anything. Having the Turk AWOL was in fact cheaper than keeping him under surveillance, making finding him even less likely to be approved.

What worried Veld about that particular situation was the letter that had been discovered at the Legendary Turk's home in Costa del Sol after he vanished off the map. Said letter had been addressed to Veld and the Head Turk had it in his pocket even now, paper creased from being read, re-read and re-folded several times.

_Dear Veld,_ the letter read,

_I won't be rejoining the Company having received a better offer from a former colleague. Vi has the right idea about business and employee satisfaction should go and the boss is by far the better man. I hope not to see you again for a good long time._

_Yours, Avro._

It was a surprisingly open piece of correspondence all things considered and gave Veld the creeps. 'Vi' had been the head Turk's nickname for his partner back when they'd been just two more blue-suits working for the newly created Company and it seemed that the red-eyed accident engineer had won the so-called 'god of the battlefield' to her cause. A matter of greater concern was the matter of Vincent's boss; Turk training was very demanding with a great deal of loyalty conditioning so that the blue-suited covert forces would answer only to higher ranking Turks and the ShinRa President himself.

Of course, Veld was currently bending his loyalties by following _a_ Shinra rather than _the_ Shinra, which led him to suspect that Vi had found yet another of the President's bastard offspring to front her activities and support her goals. Said person might not even be aware of their ancestry; The only ones who were that he knew of were Scarlet and Lazard, the Director of SOLDIER, whose mother had been one of the President's favourite Honeybees back when she was younger. Scarlet's parentage was buried under mountains of paperwork since her mother had been the wife of one of the President's former business rivals and had betrayed her husband to her Shinra lover. That had been one of Vi's kills. In return the widow had been provided with a generous independence and had slipped into wealthy obscurity, giving birth to a blonde daughter with her father's temperament ten months later.

Then there was Cloud Strife, another headache. Veld had decided that despite being Vincent's Personage he probably wasn't calling the shots. The blond SOLDIER had a promotion in the works and was efficient, intelligent and highly skilled, but seemed to lack the cutthroat ambition that characterised every Shinra the Turk knew, preferring instead to go with the flow. No fomenting dissent, no suspicious behaviour other than a fondness for teasing Veld's subordinates, no protests against company policy; the short blond seemed content to work the system rather than rise to the top or overthrow it. Shiva blast it, Strife was even polite to the technicians in the Science Department!

The only thing that could be construed as suspicious was his taste in friends. Cloud had been oddly close to Genesis before the General's defection, was very close to his mentor Sephiroth, spent time training with Zack Fair and had a strong friendship with Kunsel. Considering the second-class was a confirmed information junkie and the heart of the SOLDIER gossip network, it suggested the blond had similar interests. One of Tseng's responsibilities was to keep an eye on his fellow half-Wutaian, yet there was not even a hint of Cloud Strife being involved in anything more dubious than supplying the Silver General with smuggled coffee. Considering Veld also availed himself of Wutaian coffee off the black market, that didn't really count as criminal behaviour to the Turk's mind.

Oddly enough it was Zack who was attracting Turk attention at the moment. The cheery first-class had been spotted in places he had no real reason to be, regularly showed up near the church under the Plate in Sector Five and was generally in the vicinity of areas he was not allowed in while never actually being caught trespassing. Unfortunately he spent the rest of his time either in his office or on missions, suggesting that if he was spying, it was for someone within the ShinRa hierarchy.

The number of Zack's reports that ended up in the Silver General's inbox suggested that it was Sephiroth who had instigated the younger first-class' forays into espionage. That the General burned them after reading was confirmation enough to Veld's mind. The Head Turk could understand why Zack was doing it –Sephiroth had more than twice his previous workload and lacked the time to investigate and follow up office politics, which had always been Genesis' specialty– but that he had no idea what the first-class was passing on was positively nerve-wracking. Especially since Sephiroth never seemed to act any differently or follow up on the leads which must be being provided, suggesting that somebody else was.

_Exactly how pervasive is Vi's conspiracy and is it the only force at work here? What is going on that I can't see? _

* * *

><p><em><em>Veld is ignorant of Cloud's genetics; only Hojo knows and he's keeping it under wraps so he can continue experimenting on the blond. The Turk Chief has noticed Zack's new behaviour but doesn't have enough pieces to put together a coherent picture. That the Valentines are a network of semi-independent individuals rather than having a clear hierarchy and taking orders from on high makes it even more difficult for him.

On a lighter note, I've recruited a new Turk for the Valentines, so Vi will be able to spend more time with her boyfriend and family rather than running all over the place for work-related reasons.

Reviews are love!


	65. Perturbation

**Perturbation**

Cloud had been aware for some time that people were pushing for him to be promoted. He wasn't really all that surprised: he was a mostly model SOLDIER with enough personal flair to be memorable and was Sephiroth's student. It would have been suspicious were he _not_ up for promotion now that the compulsory year had passed since the end of his third-class shots.

However, as he lay in bed on sheets that were too rough, too sticky and too slippery all at once, the world before his eyes smothered in green and a raving cacophony filling his ears, Cloud Strife found himself wishing that Vincent had put a bit more effort into dissuading him from joining SOLDIER. In fact, he would have been seriously considering the benefits of avoiding unwanted attention through deliberate mediocrity had he not been conditioned from childhood by his mentor and teacher to work unrelentingly hard and always improve himself. The red-eyed Turk did firmly believe that a student's best was always good enough, but that best was equally subject to continuous improvement. Yesterday's exceptional performance was now today's standard.

Cloud had been giving Vincent his best for a very, very long time, so much so that he no longer had to think about pushing his limits. He now wished that he hadn't turned to Mako as a way to keep on improving on prior performance.

Mako. Mako was the real problem.

* * *

><p>Cloud had finally teased it out of a disturbingly playful Chaos only two weeks previously that the blond had more liquid Lifestream running through his veins than a third-class should. The herald of OMEGA had eventually relented enough to inform him that he had almost as '<em>the little spy<em>', as the quasi-summon insisted on calling Kunsel. Having second-class Mako levels while still a third-class indicated something seriously fishy was going on. The Turk-trained SOLDIER had done a little surreptitious investigating and, after digging his way under the Science Department's firewalls, had discovered to his horror that he was listed amongst Hojo's current pet projects. One of fourteen not including 'Project S', as it happened, but he was the only one actually at large outside the confines of the sociopath professor's private laboratory.

Very cautious further investigation through medical records revealed that it was Cloud's abnormally high Mako tolerance that the depraved doctor was intrigued by. That said tolerance was coupled with optimal sensitivity to the burning green goo Hojo injected all his subjects with only heightened the madman's interest.

There was much less data available on the other thirteen of Hojo's current projects, though the blond got the distinct impression there had initially been considerably more than thirteen of them. From what he could tell of the notes Hojo had left, the scientist was working from cell samples and engaging in genetic manipulation and other kinds of hard-wearing tests to see if, using the data he'd got from Cloud and some of the blond's own genetic material, he could improve the cultures' tolerance for Mako without depressing their sensitivity or relying on the JENOVA virus to enhance absorption.

It was pretty clear to anyone with any experience of going through Hojo's notes that the cell samples being used had been taken from Sephiroth: 'Project S' was still Hojo's pride and joy and the occasional regrets that he had failed to extract suitable source material from 'Project V' before decommissioning it made the slimy scientist's meaning pretty damn clear. Cloud was just relieved Hojo's obsession with the cell cultures was keeping him away from trying to experiment on fully grown SOLDIERs.

After a very private panic attack in Vincent's Sector One safe-house Cloud manfully went back over every last scrap of data with a fine toothed comb and came to a few tentative conclusions.

His first conclusion was that Chaos had known about this right from the start and was loving every minute of everyone else's cluelessness. He might trust the herald of OMEGA with his life, but there was clearly a good case against trusting the gold-eyed being with absolutely anything else including sanity, physical integrity and long term plans. Chaos was to plans what a sledgehammer was to a watermelon.

His second conclusion was that he was going to have to keep this quiet until after he got his shots for the promotion to second class, or else Vincent would throw the plan out of the window and dismember Hojo tomorrow, likely with Sephiroth's help. The Silver General was surprisingly protective of his protégé.

His third was that the mad professor had –much as Cloud hated to admit it– been surprisingly careful and conservative in his managing of 'Project C'.

* * *

><p>Not many people understood the rationale behind the order and concentration of Mako in the shots given to new SOLDIERs and how they differed from the ones administered on promotion to second-class. The progression was neither mathematical nor proportional, but finely calibrated to take maximum advantage of the changes in Mako tolerance thresholds that the human body showed after differing degrees of exposure.<p>

The shots that SOLDIER candidates were given on being admitted to the program were as much as the average human male could take –plus or minus a little to account for individual sensitivity– without the body going into shock and needing to be put on life support. The follow-up shots were to wear down the body's resistance and establish a solid Mako presence in all of the body's tissues. Like heavy metals, Mako accumulated. The body did try to flush it out but could only purge so much and after each sequential shot the amount purged was less and less. Once the recovery period for each injection was over the SOLDIER –or victim– recovered: no more shakes, hallucinations or sensory spikes. The Mako however remained, levels higher than they had been before. Rinse and repeat a few times and you could push the body to skirt right up against the edge of the shock threshold and keep it there.

Of course, once you'd got a person up to that limit their body needed a full year to adapt properly and renew itself to match the standard. That time enabled the Mako to permeate the bones and neural matter and be fully incorporated into new muscle and organ tissue. Once that year's grace was over, the body was suitably adapted to the presence of Mako that a dip in a vat of liquid Lifestream just dilute enough not to eat away human tissue would only improve its constitution.

Which gave you an idea of how incredibly strong the injections for second-class were.

The first set of injections enhanced the body, speeding up growth spurts and forcing all biological systems to perform to their maximum capacity. Third-class was where everyone was forced to grow up –physically at least– and many ended up far taller than they'd originally believed possible. Zack was an unbelievable six foot three, even taller than Sephiroth, while Cloud at five foot seven was still taller than he ever thought he'd be, considering his mother was only five foot one.

The shots for second class did the opposite: they slowed decay. A second-class aged very, very slowly. They also matured equally slowly, which explained why most SOLDIERs never seemed to act any older than nineteen or so. On entering second-class your attitude and personality was pretty much set in stone and only the most traumatic of catastrophes could change who you were after that second round of shots.

Cloud had found and read the statistics: Promotion to second-class meant the scientists got to inject you with as much Mako as your body could take without actually dissolving. Then after that one set of shots they left you to ride out the hypersensitivity and delirium and hoped for the best. By the end of the week you either adapted or died; about one in fifteen SOLDIERs died. The average second-class wound up with a blood Mako concentration between 21 and 25 percent, which was as much as the human genome could survive exposure to before starting to unravel.

Getting people up to first-class was the real challenge, as you had to overcome that critical threshold. Hojo solved it by saturating the shots with inert JENOVA virus, which entered the subject's cells and added itself to their DNA. This had the benefit of heightening a person's Mako tolerance by an average of nine percent, but came with the risk of serious and disfiguring mutations if the body was subject to continuous strain for long periods of time. This risk was why ShinRa actually enforced vacations for all of its SOLDIERs after a set amount of time in the field. Sephiroth's leave time had finally caught up with him and he had been off for a week before Cloud's promotion came through and wasn't due back for another fortnight. If Zack didn't take a break soon he would be forced to go on holiday by about September.

The mutations that emerged did further enhance the victim's Mako tolerance, but that was not much consolation for someone who now had to deal with an extra set of limbs, skin covered in scales or feathers or no longer having functional vocal chords.

Cloud however was not an average human, courtesy of the extremely well-informed tinkering of his genetics by his adoptive father. In fact, judging by Hojo's meticulous records, Cloud's blood Mako levels had already been only a few percent below second-class and would likely power all the way up into first-class territory with his next set of shots.

That wasn't a problem; the issue was the genetic inheritance Chaos had seeded the blond's genome with, which Cloud just knew would be at least in part Mako triggered. The high levels he would be exposed to in the second round of shots would in all probability awaken some of the 'invisible' cascading genetic alterations, which would create a foundation for later, more visible changes to build upon. The blond had resigned himself to the inevitability of a pair of wings; there was no way the herald of OMEGA would allow any child of his –adoptive or otherwise– get away with remaining with both feet on the ground.

Other abilities would likely include innate magical abilities, an ever higher tolerance for Mako and physical near-invulnerability, on top of immunity to the JENOVA virus and the ability to spook most monsters just by showing up. Cloud had no idea what other abilities Chaos considered important for a person to have and wasn't sure he wanted to ask.

* * *

><p>All of the above had combined to lead him to where he was now, helpless, delirious and incoherent as Mako seared through his veins and drove his body right up to the edge of what it could withstand.<p>

Few people remember to consider that the brain is also part of the body, being in fact the physical framework for the mind. Cloud was unpleasantly aware of this as he experienced phantom pains, excruciatingly detailed hallucinations and disturbingly warped dreams. His perception of time was also distorted, as were his already superhuman kinaesthetic abilities and his ability to sense other Mako-enriched beings. The frankly insane heights the latter reached meant that by the end of his second day locked in delirium Cloud knew exactly how many SOLDIERs were on the Plate, where they all where and could have picked each one out of a line-up while deaf and blindfolded.

Fortunately for his sanity one of Chaos' failsafes kicked in early in the morning of the third day, sending the blond into a deep healing coma. When the SOLDIER finally awoke at the end of the week he felt better than he had in months and easily evaded the concerned medical staff trying to get him to lie down again as he went looking for Zack and a fight. He found his friend in the VR room and, after a fierce hug and responding to a barrage of questions, managed to persuade the first-class to spar with him.

Zack won the first two fights, but Cloud beat him twice more after he adjusted to his new limits.

* * *

><p>More Cloud, specifically detailing his discovery of Hojo's interest in him and a more in-depth look at Mako enhancement and how it works.<p>

Chaos loves it when people don't tell other people about things they really need to know. Keeping secrets is the best way to create disharmony and sow confusion.


	66. Quantum Fluctuation

**Quantum Fluctuation**

In mid-May Lazard vanished from the ShinRa Corporation and Midgar altogether, two days ahead of Turk auditors who had numerous very pointed questions they wanted to pose the man regarding his expenditures. Despite being warned a good long time in advance that this might happen, Sephiroth was extremely irritated about it. The Silver General made his ire abundantly clear when Heidegger attempted to abolish the position of the Director of SOLDIER and fully subsume the division to his personal authority.

"SOLDIERs are more than just infantrymen with a Mako boost," the elite First-class said icily, glaring at the bearded jackass with slit-pupilled eyes. "They are an elite unit with specialised training and particular requirements in both tactics and morale that are necessary to fully achieve their full potential. Lazard understood this and granted me and my subordinates the leeway to act accordingly."

"What do you recommend then, General?" Reeve Tuasti inquired as Heidegger bristled at the implicit insult and the rest of the board shifted in their seats.

"I will assume the role of Director of SOLDIER," Sephiroth said calmly. "Zackary Fair will take over as public face of the Department and the internal command will be split between Fair, Antonin and Devlin, who will between them complete the paperwork and oversee training."

"After Director Lazard's... indiscretions perhaps it would be wise for there to be a third party to hand to keep an eye on the cash flow," Veld said dryly. "Simply as a precaution, you understand."

Sephiroth twitched at the slight but said nothing, keeping his eyes on the President. The Silver General desired nothing more than the opportunity to skewer the fat fool whose rampant egomania was the source of his family's misfortunes, but he could wait a little longer to fulfil that fantasy.

"The position of Director of SOLDIER is hereby abolished," the President said eventually, "but as General of SOLDIER Sephiroth is granted a seat on the board, full independence in strategic matters, power of veto over missions and all of the other duties and privileges the former Director enjoyed. Your other recommendations are approved, Sephiroth: you have a week to put them in place and a month to get SOLDIER running at peak efficiency once more." The short, tubby and balding blond paused, frowning. "However I will be assigning accountants to keep an eye on the cash flows of each Department. Squandering company funds is not something I will tolerate."

In other words, Sephiroth mentally translated, President Shinra did not appreciate other people making off with _his_ money.

* * *

><p>Sephiroth's takeover of Lazard's duties went smoothly, largely thanks to Cloud, Zack and, unexpectedly, SOLDIER second-class Kunsel. The Silver General had learnt to tolerate his mother's boyfriend but this was the first time he'd really spent time with the slightly older man and he was pleasantly surprised by Kunsel's level of awareness of anything and everything even remotely related to the SOLDIER program. With the Second-class- help Sephiroth was able to update the cadet program, streamline the training for new third-classes and instate a proper protocol for promotions and to gauge suitability for officer training rather than having to rely on word-of-mouth and nepotism. While Zack had turned out to be excellent officer material, his rapid promotion had occurred largely due to Angeal's influence rather than the lilac-eyed First's own merits. Zack had grown into the role eventually, but in a truly fair environment his promotion would not have gone through until later in his career.<p>

Sephiroth would have had Kunsel promoted for his invaluable assistance, except that to do so would mean his mother's lover would be infected with the JENOVA virus, which Chaos would react extremely badly to. Valentine herself would also be extremely displeased, so it was better by far to not even go there, no matter how deserving of promotion Kunsel was.

* * *

><p>The Silver General sighed, shifting another stack of paperwork to his 'out' tray. Cloud had given Valentine a rather large data packet the last time she'd dropped by to check up on him, which had resulted in his mother vanishing for a day and a half before walking in on Sephiroth in the shower and bluntly informing the shocked General that she was going to kill Hojo before Christmas, so he had that long to plot his own revenge. Learning exactly why his mother had stepped up her timetable had utterly infuriated Sephiroth and provoked a rash of insidious and occasionally outright nasty pranks on the Science Department that had Hojo frothing in rage. ShinRa office policy was now to blame such outbreaks on 'gremlins', as the culprits were no nearer to being discovered than they had been two years previously. Sephiroth had been a master tactician then and constant practice had only honed his skills. Pranking held many similarities with guerrilla warfare, which the Silver General had seen enough of in Wutai to successfully plan and enact his own campaigns.<p>

Rude was, as ever, a willing accomplice. The large, quiet man was now very highly placed in the Turks, proving that tactics and strategy were universal, no matter what you happened to be using them for.

Cloud was still recovering from his shots and alternated between training, going on local monster clean-up missions around Midgar and training the rookie Thirds. He was smart, patient and very dangerous, which meant his students paid attention and learned things. The Silver General's blond protégé now won two out of three of his spars with Zack –to the brunet's dismay– and just under half of his fights with Sephiroth himself. More, the short SOLDIER was still improving, his swordsmanship gaining polish and fluency as he gained experience. Sephiroth knew he'd be outclassed in a few more years and wasn't sure how he felf about it. True, he himself had improved more since taking on Cloud as a student than in the previous four years together, but he had always been the best. That Cloud might take that title away from him... he really did not know. Maybe it was time to start exploring in earnest who Sephiroth Valentine, son of Vincent Valentine, really was beyond a swordsman, a SOLDIER and a General.

His philosophical pondering was cut short by blaring alarms: Hojo's test subjects from the main laboratories were loose in the building. Sighing, Sephiroth issued orders to his SOLDIERs over the intercom, grabbed Masamune and headed upwards. The President would want his assurance that the problem would be promptly dealt with and the security of ShinRa's most powerful SOLDIER in his office as monsters roamed the halls.

* * *

><p>Lazard leaves, Cloud tells the Valentines about 'Project C' and AVALANCHE lets loose Hojo's monsters. A General's work is never done.<p>

Yes, it's been a while, but I am still writing. I'm just doing a lot of other things as well.


	67. Spontaneous Emission

**Spontaneous Emission**

Cloud sighed softly, leaning against the wall of the stairwell just outside the 61st floor. This batch of monsters was from one of Hojo's more heavily classified projects so SOLDIER involvement had been limited to evacuating those unfortunate enough to have their offices invaded and posting guards on the 60th floor to catch anything that happened to get that far down. The only reason he wasn't down below with everyone else was that Tseng had requested his assistance. Since Cloud was the unofficial Turk-SOLDIER liason and Tseng was Veld's second in command, the blond couldn't exactly say no. He wasn't cleared for independent missions just yet –wouldn't be for another two and a half months– but Seph had cleared him for team missions where he was not in a leadership position last week, so long as those missions were not overnight. Cloud had adapted amazingly quickly to his increased augmentation in the physical sense but still suffered from vivid, surreal dreams most nights. He had creeped out his various room-mates enough times with sleep-talking and occasional moving around that he had been moved and assigned to share a small flat with Kunsel despite the latter's seniority supposedly granting him private quarters. Kunsel freely admitted that Cloud was extremely disconcerting when he sleep-walked, but the two knew each-other well enough for it not to damage their friendship.

Cloud sighed again. Chaos had been cheerfully evasive when confronted on the subject of Cloud's psychological reaction to Mako and not even Vincent could tease a straight answer out of him. The Herald of OMEGA had however won some forbearance from Cloud by giving the blond a sword.

And what a sword, too. As big as Zack's Buster and considerably heavier, it was an assemblage of six blades that fitted together into a seamless whole. Deconstructed it was made up of a broadsword, a hollow off-hand blade and two pairs of blades that were mirror images of each-other: two like short cleavers and two longer, vaguely katana-like swords. The wierd weapon perfectly suited Cloud's mix-and-match, sword-and-knife fighting style and the blond spent as much time as he could training with his fusion swords. The results were shaping up to be everything he could have hoped for, though he had his suspicions regarding the true nature of the weapon. Normal swords do not hum and resonate with the Mako in your blood. Nor do they feel so inexplicably _right_ that all other swords seem third-rate in comparison afterwards.

Well, maybe that last point was normalish: Sephiroth certainly never used any blade other than Masamune if he could help it and acted as though the impractically long sword was a natural extension of his arm. Cloud had recently discovered that using such a long blade made the wielder vulnerable to people who could fight with a weapon in each hand, provided of course the attacker was strong enough to parry Masamune one-handed and attack with the other sword. Cloud could do it; from the sheer shock on Sephiroth's face when the blond scored a hit, no-one else had ever so much as tried.

Of course, now that Cloud could almost match the Silver General in strength Sephiroth was training harder than ever and having as much fun as the Turk-trained blond in their frequent spars. They pushed each-other to the limit and loved every second of it.

* * *

><p>Cloud pushed himself off the wall as Tseng hurried down the stairs and fell into step behind the tilak-marked Turk.<p>

"Hojo has left the building in a helicopter with Fuhito and Shears of AVALANCHE," the half-Wutaian said shortly. "We are to intercept with a truck; Sephiroth will be following."

"I can get us down there faster," Cloud offered, equipping an Exit Materia. While he still disliked trucks, the shots from being promoted to Second-class meant they no longer made him throw up.

"Thank-you," Tseng said as they materialised just outside the garage below the ShinRa building. "I'll drive."

Cloud did not pout, as Zack might have done. SOLDIERs had exceptional reflexes, which meant a near miss to normal people was plenty of room to someone seriously Mako enhanced. As a result, whenever SOLDIERs and normal people had to drive somewhere together the normals generally insisted on driving. Cloud could drive now and far preferred doing so to being a passenger, but at least sitting in the front was less likely to make him queasy than having to perch in the back.

As Tseng screeched around the front of the ShinRa building another Turk dashed out and hopped in the back of the truck. Kirian, Cloud remembered after a moment's thought to place where he'd seen that hairstyle before. The blond SOLDIER had first encountered Kirian back when the man was still one of Don Corneo's bodyguards. Of course, Cloud himself had just been another freelance monster hunter back then, though he doubted Kirian had forgotten the encounter.

"Ravens again," the wild-haired shooter said shortly. "I had to push it into the furnace to kill it."

"Sure you don't want me to drive, Tseng?" Cloud asked, eyes on the helicopter up ahead as they sped along the highway. Tseng's eyes darted from the helicopter to the traffic.

"Very well then."

Not wanting to give the Turk a chance to change his mind, Cloud slipped out of his seatbelt, grabbed the wheel with one hand and shoved a foot over to gun the accelerator. As the truck lurched forwards Tseng scrambled over the blond SOLDIER, who then firmly ensconced himself in the driver's seat and proceeded to push the vehicle to its limits.

* * *

><p>Cloud ignored Kirian's fervent recitation of the Ave Maria and Tseng's slightly loud and deliberately even breathing as they gained on the helicopter. Then a shadow detached from it as it turned to circle overhead. The blond swerved violently but the bomb that hit the road exploded powerfully enough to send concrete shrapnel through the side of the truck and deep into the engine, forcing him to crash into the barrier or risk an engine fire.<p>

The SOLDIER groaned softly as the dust settled: Tseng was slumped in the seat next to him, bleeding messily from a scalp would. After quickly checking over the senior Turk for more severe injuries and finding none, Cloud used one of his sword's smaller blades to cut his way out of the destroyed truck and easily carried Tseng out of range of possible explosions.

Looking around, Cloud spotted Kirian crouched amongst the debris, breathing heavily as he tried to stop AVALANCHE leader Shears from escaping. Cloud was about to butt in when a shadow fell over everything and the air was rent by a deafening roar.

_Dragon. Massive green dragon._ Cloud felt his blood tingling as he reached for Comet, the most dangerous and destructive Materia in his arsenal. _I refuse to be killed by an overgrown lizard-_

Another roar, this one from ground level and a little behind him, split the air and Sephiroth shot past in a blur, rocketing towards the dragon with lethal intent. The blond switched Materia to cast a high-level Cure on Tseng then ran over to Kirian, who had finally collapsed. Shears was nowhere in sight.

"Are you-"

"The helicopter," Kirian rasped as Cloud cast Cure. The blond glanced upwards to see Sephiroth swing Masamune down through the helicopter's rotating blades. The dragon lay sprawled across the road, eviscerated and cooling.

"It's coming down," Cloud informed the Turk.

"Get Hojo," Kirian muttered, stumbling to his feet again. "You do that," Cloud said absently, making a beeline for the falling helicopter. He was personally more interested in Fuhito, who was definitely in there as well and high on Cloud's personal shit list. The man who'd created the Ravens had a lot to answer for.

Sephiroth and Kirian successfully secured Hojo and Cloud managed to cut up Fuhito and Shears quite severely, but the two AVALANCE members between them managed to get away from him. He would have given chase, except he still wasn't allowed off on his own given his ongoing reaction to increased Mako levels. Sighing in disappointment, the blond slung his sword over his shoulder and retraced his steps to stand by Sephiroth. He really did wonder what all that had been about, but his only disappointment was that no-one had managed to 'accidentally' kill Hojo before the end of the mission.

* * *

><p>In canon Cloud is abnormally sensitivve to Mako. Despite Chaos' tinkering, he is still more sensitive than the average SOLDIER, hence the dreams and why he is being monitored. It'll pass.<p>

Remember, reviews are love!


	68. Pilot Wave

**Pilot Wave**

Rosso perched on the edge of a rooftop wearing a red SOLDIER uniform, legs dangling over a four-storey drop and hands automatically cleaning her double bladed gun-glaive as she watched Aerith go about her morning shopping. The Deepground escapee spent most of every day watching over the last Ancient, partly because the teenager was Genesis' sweetheart but mostly because the older girl had wormed her way into Rosso's heart to the point that the redhead couldn't bear to see her hurt. Aerith was a shining beacon of all the things Shin-Ra was trying to destroy and the mere sight of her was a soothing, healing balm on Rosso's soul.

As Aerith set off back home with her purchases Rosso levered herself upright and bounced across rooftops and along the underside of the Plate, keeping a sharp eye on her friend's surroundings. The flower girl was utterly incapable of defending herself, as vulnerable as a newly hatched chocobo and twice as cute. However just as Aerith reached the front of her house she almost ran into a very large –if rather dishevelled– Turk emerging from an alleyway, looking like he'd gone on an all night bender and just woken up. Aerith, being understandably skittish of Shin-Ra's blue-suited operatives, dropped her shopping on the front step, turned and ran for her life. Rosso hurried after her; the Turk clearly hadn't recognised her, suggesting his presence was purely coincidental. Besides, from what cousin Vinnie had told her the Turks had a certain pride in their image and were unlikely to go on missions looking like they'd spent the night in a slum back alley. Hopefully she could calm the other girl down a bit and go back home so as not to worry Elmyra, who would be opening the front door on scattered shopping and no daughter.

Unfortunately for Rosso it seemed Murphy, patron deity of unpleasant surprises, had heard her thought and decided to make her life more interesting: as she reached Aerith the flower girl ran into a group of men wearing brown pseudo-uniforms with AVALANCHE patches and carrying machine guns. Aerith, no fool, instantly turned on her heel and dashed back the way she'd come as the men started to give chase and radioed for reinforcements. Rosso did not follow, instead unfolding her gun-glaive and dropping on the men from above, killing them with little difficulty. Threat neutralised she hurried after her charge, finding the slightly older girl hiding behind the same Turk she'd only minutes earlier run away from. The Turk was giving the mass of AVALANCHE troops a real run for their money but his injuries were accumulating and for all his size and strength he was definitely nowhere near as enhanced as Rosso herself. Weighing the situation against the various battle simulations she'd been forced through over the years the ex-Deepgrounder decided that intervening was a necessary risk –she could always off the Turk later– and waded into the brown-clad troops from the rear, swinging her glaive with a fierce war-whoop.

Zack had been right: playing the hero _was_ fun.

* * *

><p>Once all the AVALANCHE forces present were dead Rosso lowered her weapon and grinned at Aerith as the other girl peeked out from behind the Turk, whose hand-to-hand skills had been fairly impressive.<p>

"Hey there Sweetie! Big brother asked me to look out for you, remember?"

The Turk relaxed a little as Aerith shot out from behind him to hug Rosso. "You two know each-other?" he asked, eying the enhanced girl's uniform with interest.

"She's dating my big brother," Rosso commented blithely, giving Aerith a quick hug before glancing around at the bodies on the ground. Unfortunately Aerith's safety was more important than looting the dead right now. "Let's get out of here before more reinforcements show up."

"They said they were after me," Aerith whispered in her ear as Rosso led their little cavalcade across the Sector towards the abandoned church, sticking to quiet alleyways and occasionally climbing over buildings. The Turk had made use of Rosso's Restore Materia and was keeping up with ease. He was also eyeing Rosso more thoughtfully; not that she blamed him. She _was_ carrying Aerith on her back, keeping her gun-glaive gripped in one hand and had yet to work up a sweat. News of her presence here would reach the Turk command as soon as she let him out of her sight and her connections to Deepground would emerge in short order, regardless of the beautiful sabotage her brothers had engaged in a few months previously. The redhead knew she would have to disappear before they caught up with her, preferably with Aerith in tow. Genesis was completely nutty about the flower girl and would likely do something stupid if she got caught.

"Where are we going?" the Turk finally asked.

"Somewhere defensible," Rosso replied shortly. "You got a name, mister blue-suit?"

"Call me Lock, Miss Rosso," he replied, deep voice impeccably respectful. Rosso bristled internally but didn't let her irritation show; she suspected he was one of those men who held open doors and pulled out chairs for women, the chivalrous protective type. It rubbed her the wrong way, like she was being mocked and her skills belittled. Intellectually she knew it wasn't true, but he still unconsciously pushed her hot buttons. She wasn't fragile, didn't need taking care of that way. She was strong, a survivor, a warrior queen in her own right; she didn't need a knight in shining armour to rescue her like in the stories Nero liked to read.

Rosso hurried up to the church and slammed the doors open, then paused on the threshold, berating herself for her carelessness:

"Okay, so I take it those goons were yours," she said to the skinny scientist standing over by the flowers with another dozen troops, a large man and a vaguely insectoid woman, "But they weren't very polite to us at all. If they wanted us to come here they could have just asked." Backchat and cheek had both been severely punished in Deepground, but Genesis had taught her it was good for distracting people and stalling. In this case it also enabled the Turk to slip away unseen, preferably in search of reinforcements.

"And who might you be, Miss..?" the scientist inquired, his voice leaving Rosso with a vaguely unclean feeling down her spine.

"I'm just Miss Gainsborough's bodyguard, Mr..?"

"I am _Doctor_ Fuhito of AVALANCHE," the scientist replied, the emphasis slightly irritated. "With me are Shears and Elfé."

Elfé looked like she wasn't all there, both sets of shiny black wings twitching and her eyes vacant. Vinnie looked like that when she was having a knock-down, drag-out argument with Chaos inside her mind.

"We would like to talk to your charge regarding a matter of some urgency, madam bodyguard," Fuhito went on, tone subtly condescending. Rosso let Aerith slide off her back and led her forward a little so they were no longer in the way of the door, then stopped and turned to lean against the wall.

"Aerith?" she asked, looking her friend and possible future sister in the eye.

The teenage Ancient drew herself up to her full height –which wasn't much– nodded and turned to meet Fuhito's gaze. "Please tell me, Dr. Fuhito."

* * *

><p>As the fanatical scientist launched himself into his spiel Rosso let her eyes wander, noting in passing that Lock was climbing the side of the building. The teenage fugitive ignored Fuhito's voice completely, letting his zealotry wash over her as she studied her surroundings in greater detail.<p>

The man Fuhito had introduced as Shears was indeed the primary field commander of AVALANCHE; she recognised him. The Valentines had acquired quite a bit of information on the environmental terrorist group after Cloud first met the Ravens, as they all agreed that anyone who did _that_ to people was an enemy regardless of the cause they claimed to fight for. Shears looked like a construction worker or a docker, large and broad with well-defined muscles and messy hair sticking out from underneath a green bandanna. He was a stark contrast to short, slim, bespectacled Fuhito, whose slicked-back hair and tidy clothing mae the scientist look like a lawyer.

Rosso had only ever seen fictional lawyers and even though she knew television dramas were not a reliable guide to reality Fuhito fit the sleazy, amoral stereotype too well for there not to be a certain amount of truth in the comparison. Her hands twitched, itching to cut him down and be done with it.

Elfé was more interesting. With prominent ivory markings emerging from the tanned skin of her arms and jaw and those black, beetle-like wings, she was even more physically alien then Genesis had described Sephiroth as being, superseded only by Vinnie's Limit Breaks and Chaos himself. Her incomprehensible muttering and occasional clutching at herself however suggested either a severe multiple personality disorder or advanced possession. Considering her appearance, Rosso was leaning towards the latter.

She was however unable to verify her suspicions as AVALANCHE forces started dropping from the rafters in various stages of injury. Shears immediately headed up to do battle with Lock, who had just climbed in through a hole in the roof, so Rosso hit Elfé with the strongest Confuse spell she could muster, grabbed Aerith around the waist and fled. On her way across the open area around the church Rosso spotted Tseng and made a mental note to call Genesis as soon as Aerith was back with Elmyra; Midgar was no longer a safe place for either of them to be if the Turks' second-in-command was taking an interest in them.

* * *

><p>Well it has been almost literally forever, but I have updated! And it's from a brand-new point of view! The Nibelheim incident is about a month away now, incidentally. Oh, and Rosso is about a month younger than Aerith. Talk about totally different people...<p> 


	69. Eigenvectors

**Eigenvectors**

Vincent was happy. Ridiculously, irrepressibly content. Since Cloud's sixteenth birthday two weeks previously there had been a lull in missions that had enabled her to spend serious quality time with both Sephiroth and Kunsel. With her son she had seized the opportunity to get to know him better and they had spent a few days eating takeout, chatting and laying to rest various issues that were inevitably surfacing now that Sephiroth was no longer stuck in survival mode. Hearing in greater detail about his desolate childhood made Vincent want to kill things, but Sephiroth's wellbeing was more important than her own coping strategies so she had comforted him to the best of her abilities, reassured him and helped him to accept that what he had suffered through was not his fault in the slightest. She didn't blame him for any of it and he should _not_ shoulder responsibility for other people's choices.

Even more difficult to work through were her little dragon's memories of his first deployment to Wutai at fourteen. Now that the Silver General truly understood the profound differences between soldiers, warriors and civilians he felt terrible guilt for the part he had played in decimating entire provinces. Vincent had not let her baby boy withdraw into himself and suffer alone; instead she reminded him of circumstances and encouraged him to let go of the burden. His ignorance had not been his fault as he had been trained in a way somewhat equivalent to Wutai's ninjas, whose targets were individuals of all walks of life, rather than in a properly military fashion. She conceded however that he did now know better and suggested that, once he had forgiven himself, he could find a way to make amends. Of course nothing he did would restore the dead but he could find ways to assist those left behind. He might fund some of the rebuilding going on in Wutai, or perhaps find a way to sponsor the preservation of the recently-conquered nation's culture in order to counter the Company's efforts to crush even the memory of independence.

Her logical division of responsibility and guilt and her suggestions to counter it visibly comforted Sephiroth and the twenty-four-year-old was seriously considering her ideas to the point of doing further research into the subjugated nation's history and economy.

Equally heartening was Sephiroth's shift in how he addressed her: rather than the formal 'Valentine' he had previously favoured he now called her 'mother' almost exclusively, reverting to 'Vi' when in the presence of people who were unaware of the connection or in situations where he felt their relationship should not influence the decision or outcome discussed. He had picked up the diminutive nickname from Avro, as it was what those Turks that had known her best had called her. Avro had been the student of a now-dead colleague who had been close to her, a man she missed and that the blond bomber reminded her of.

Genesis and his siblings however had taken to calling her 'Vinnie', a ridiculous nickname that she nonetheless tolerated in the spirit of family feeling. Nero had made her laugh with his observation that it was equally acceptable a nickname for either gender, being a diminutive of Lavinia as much as Vincent. Having a family was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

* * *

><p>Life with Kunsel was also proceeding swimmingly. They got on well, were comfortable with each-other and talked about pretty much anything with little difficulty. It was getting to the point that Draculina was considering taking the risk of revealing her true identity in order to deepen their relationship. They had been lovers for eighteen months now and Kunsel had even taken her to visit his mother. Shortly after that Draculina had informed her beloved of the true extent of her family tree and the identities of her various relatives, including her connections to the Generals. Her lover had cracked a joke about how glad he was that Sephiroth was the only one still around to threaten him and assured her that he didn't mind not being able to meet her 'parents'. Telling that lie twinged deep inside, but Vincent had plans in place that meant that soon she would be able to end the deception.<p>

Vincent had been apoplectic with rage of learning that Hojo had used Cloud as a test subject and had with difficulty suppressed the urge –not exclusive to Galian Beast– to hunt him down and tear him limb from limb. She had channelled that wrathful energy into perfecting the final phase of the plan she had been working on since Nibelheim; her endgame.

By the new year Hojo would be both dead and so thoroughly discredited that her family would never be threatened ever again.

* * *

><p>It was a true-blue Turk scheme, replete with bad-mouthing, rumour-mongering, subtle manipulation and the gradual release to relevant parties of documents that brought into question everything Hojo had ever achieved and aspired to: character assassination at its finest. Vincent wanted the psychotic scientist relegated to the garbage bin of history, utterly discredited and completely neutralised. She wanted him to be the laughingstock of the scientific community, considered a political liability and an economic disaster. With this in mind she had sponsored a variety of research at Junon University which now brought into question everything from the man's methods through the accuracy and reliability of his results down to the very premises on which his work was founded.<p>

The effects of her investments were now making themselves felt: while Shin-Ra still touted him as head of its Science Department, in academic circles Hojo was now considered unreliable and both his methods and findings were being discredited, the effects of which were spreading slowly but inexorably. The pressure on Hojo was increasing daily as 'gremlin' activity instigated more and more mishaps and office rumour ran wild; there were even whispers that the President felt the man was becoming unstable. Soon Vincent would be able to murder the man who had torn her from her son and so tortured her only child and have his death written off as an accident in the lab. After his death the more controversial details of his experiments would be leaked to the press, encouraging the Company to publicly disavow all knowledge and discontinue all projects the mad scientist had been involved with. If they failed to do so, well Vincent had to hand everything she needed for a successful coup, just in case.

In fact, the only blot on the horizon was Chaos recent behaviour. He had been positively gleeful of late and disturbingly accommodating. He was even suppressing the influence of her inner monsters, which was so utterly out of character it was creepy. Vincent was waiting apprehensively for the other shoe to drop; for Chaos to be this biddable surely meant there was something coming that would completely upset the applecart, something that could not be prevented. She had tried to wheedle it out of him but the herald of OMEGA insisted that it was 'a surprise'.

Worse still was his claim that I was '_a nice surprise, little vessel._'

Truly, a sign of impending doom if ever there was one.

* * *

><p>Can anybody guess what that 'nice suprise' might be? Oh, and Eigenvectors are a quantum thing, again.<p> 


	70. Opacity

**Opacity**

Zack was completely and utterly bored out of his skull. Yes, it _was_ nice to take a break from the never-ending stream of high level missions that –as one of only eight First-class SOLDIERs left– he had been completing in the past months, not to mention his extra duties as the Department's new poster-boy and deputy commander, but he'd been at the beach for over a week now and the lack of activity was making him twitchy. The beach was owned by the Company and pretty much deserted, leaving him with no-one to talk to unless he called up a friend on his PHS. He hadn't even been allowed to bring his uniform and sword to practice new moves with. Zack had managed to while away a lot of time chatting to Cloud on his PHS and had even called Rosso once or twice; he missed his girlfriend and hadn't seen her since she recently fled Midgar after a run-in with AVALANCHE and the Turks. It was his ninth day at the beach and he had been reduced to doing squats to keep himself occupied, which said exactly how bored he was.

"Want some tanning oil?" came a semi-familiar voice from Zack's left. Glancing over the SOLDIER recognised the girl as being Cissinei, the Turk whose weapon of choice was a giant shuriken, who was currently unarmed and wearing a fairly modest bikini.

"I don't need that stuff," Zack replied shortly, not pausing in his exercise routine; as a native to tropical Gongaga his skin tanned quickly and SOLDIERs were more resistant to sunburn anyway. "What are you doing here?" he asked a few moments later as her presence registered, "have I been left out of something again?" he had too much energy to just stay still and if there was a mission he could blow off some steam.

"Isn't it nice to have a break like this once in a while?" Cissinei smiled as she descended the steps down onto the sand, ignoring Zack's question.

"I've had enough," the SOLDIER First said flatly, abandoning his squats. "I think I'll call someone." Maybe Kunsel would be up for a chat, or there might be a mission up for grabs.

"Sephiroth and Cloud are out of the office and all the other currently available missions have been taken," the Turk told him.

"What? Everything?" Zack whined. "Even those Shiva-damned sewer clearing ones?"

"Even those," Cissinei confirmed, amusement tingeing her voice.

"I do wonder what has got into everyone lately though," Zack added quietly after a moment's quiet, watching the waves lap against the sand. Things had been getting increasingly tense at Shin-Ra headquarters of late, SOLDIER was taking fewer missions from the Science Department and with his new duties as 'the face of SOLDIER' Zack saw Sephiroth at least once a day but barely ever for enough time to even exchange pleasantries. They'd been able to have a half-decent conversation at Cloud's birthday party but that had been a month ago and out of deference to the birthday boy work had been a taboo subject. The tension in Headquarters was ratcheting up daily and even Kunsel, who knew _everything_, couldn't quite articulate why. That the Second-class was worried and distracted due to his girlfriend's recent moodiness didn't help.

"Only the people involved could tell you that," Cissinei answered him, jerking Zack from his introspection, "but even if they did there's no way of guaranteeing that they are telling you the truth."

Zack snorted, staring out at the blue waves. "Cissinei? Mind going over there for a bit?" he asked. It had been a while since he's spoken to his girlfriend and he wanted her opinion.

"Calling Rosso?" Cissinei asked slyly.

"How did –am I being watched or something?" Zack demanded. Yes, Rosso was technically a fugitive or some such rot but it wasn't her fault.

"Or something," Cissinei agreed. "Your girlfriend involved herself with someone we were watching, so we looked into her background. Just to be on the safe side, of course."

"Of course," Zack muttered sarcastically. "Wonderful."

"We were letting things lie, but then they both vanished," Cissinei went on. "The girl we were watching is an Ancient, the last one on the Planet and Tseng is… concerned for her welfare."

Zack blinked. "Are you talking about Aerith? The flower girl?" Rosso had introduced her to him as 'my brother's girlfriend' which suggested Genesis might have taken a personal interest in the sweet teen's safety.

"If you know where she went we'd like to know," the Turk said lightly, eyes bright.

"Sorry," Zack told her, words honest if not entirely sincere, "but I have absolutely no idea where she might be." He stared out to sea again. Something wasn't quite right…

There was a commotion at the top of the steps and Zack turned to see Tseng running towards them, dressed in his usual suit.

"Look out! There are Dead Men in the water!" he shouted. Zack turned just as three men in wetsuits leapt out of the sea and produced weapons. The SOLDIER looked around for something vaguely weapon-like, but was forced to settle for a furled beach umbrella.

_So much for peace and quiet at the beach_, Zack thought as he settled into a stance and waited for the inevitable attack to come.

* * *

><p>By sunset Zack was back in uniform, tired, irritable and very hungry. The ambush at the beach had been nothing more than a distraction while the Weapons Department warehouse down on the docks was being emptied right down to the shelving and forklift trucks; everything remotely portable had been removed. The three frogmen had dodged in and out of his range, baiting him as they prevented him from leaving the area until a radio buzzed and the trio instantly fled back into the sea. Tseng had then hurried Zack back to his hotel where another Turk –this one a tall redhead– was waiting with Zack's SOLDIER uniform and Buster sword.<p>

Zack had then led a large force of infantrymen alongside Tseng and a dozen Turks onto a Gelnika and been flown to Junon, where a larger group of Genesis' forces were ransacking warehouses and sowing chaos all over town. Luckily there'd been food on the plane or else Zack would have been forced to resort to cannibalism to keep his Mako-boosted metabolism running, though MREs were not even remotely appetising. As it was he'd spent the entire afternoon herding infantrymen, fighting monsters, deserters –some of whom he recognised– and laboratory escapees, assisting Turks and reassuring civilians. However as the sun sank towards the horizon the Dead Men had scattered, vanishing into sewers, down the socks and up and away in hijacked aircraft, leaving Junon in shambles. Someone had even broken into the University and set the student records offices on fire!

Zack had to admit that the majority of their actions did make military sense for a guerrilla force living off the land, but breaking into the university had not been even remotely logical. Al least trashing the Sister Ray's power couplings and Mako pumps was rational, if incredibly irritating. The spiky-haired brunet SOLDIER slumped against the edge of the airship dock, brooding.

"Mission failed. That'll be a big minus on your service record," Sephiroth said trenchantly from behind him. Zack did _not_ jump, even though the Silver General had badly startled him; the man moved like a cat.

"Seph! I heard you were on a mission somewhere," he replied with a smile as he turned around to face his superior officer.

"Leave the cleanup to the Turks;" the Silver General went on, striding forward to stare out over the seafront and the still smoking city below them. "I was investigating a series of thefts in Modeoheim when I heard what was going down here."

"Oh, I'm so happy for you," Zack snarked. Sephiroth had arrived too late to help.

"It seems the lull is over; Genesis' forces have shown up all over the Planet," the Silver General added. "Even in Midgar."

"I wonder what he's up to," Zack mused. There _had_ to be a plan. He just could not see it.

"So do I," Sephiroth murmured, before turning around to face his current second-in-command. "So, Zackary, how have you been lately?"

Zack blinked, then grinned cheerfully. At last he was getting a chance to catch up and have a _proper_ conversation with Sephiroth!

* * *

><p>Zack isn't really out of the loop, it is just that Vincent had not been particularly forthcoming on the nature of her latest scheme. Genesis is restocking and shaking up the status quo.<p> 


	71. Sixth Iteration

**Sixth Iteration**

Kirian had been a Turk for slightly over eighteen months and Don Corneo's bodyguard for the six years before that. He was a professional hitman, patient, obedient and highly intelligent; joining the Turks had been one of his better impulse decisions despite the irritating and sometimes illogical protocols involved and he liked his job. However as he scrambled over the bitterly cold hillside above the Nibelheim Mako reactor he caught himself wishing he'd turned Veld down. He hated the cold and his smart suit wasn't much protection from the freezing weather despite the thermal underwear he had on.

On being told he was being dispatched to Nibelheim to investigate the disappearance of the reactor staff Kirian had immediately hunted down SOLDIER Second-class Cloud Strife, the only person he knew who was native to the area. The Turks were a bit like a family and, since the blond SOLDIER had been raised by the infamous Vincent Valentine, Clous was considered to be a bastard son of the Department of Administrative Research. No-one talked about the connection of course, but Cloud played their games, got their jokes, appreciated their work in a way most SOLDIERs did not and ensured all the new Thirds knew better than to disrespect anyone wearing a blue suit. In return the Turks ignored the existence of his personal PHS' highly treasonous contact list, let him use their obstacle courses and overlooked the possibly dubious provenance of the notes and tip-offs that regularly made their way into the Department's inboxes. The system worked and the information had saved lives, so Veld and Tseng let the SOLDIER be.

Cloud, on learning that Kirian was going to Nibelheim, immediately advised he wear the thickest set of thermal underthings he could get his hands on.

"The Nibel area is absolutely miserable in autumn," the blond warned him, "and the monsters are all out in force. Nibel Wolves, Sonic Speeds, Twin Brains, Screamers, Bombs and all kinds of other nasties; you cannot possibly be too well-armed or too warmly dressed."

Kirian hadn't quite believed him –it couldn't possibly be that bad, could it?– but after parachuting out of a helicopter over Nibelheim, being blown several miles off-course by icy winds and having to fight his way across the mountainside as he tried to reach the reactor and complete his mission, the Turk had to conceded that Cloud might be considered a master of the art of the understatement. The area was even worse than the SOLDIER had described: damp, biting winds, vicious packs of monsters and highly confusing geography all made the Nibel mountains a miserable place for a mission. Kirian couldn't wait for it to be over.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for the Midgar native, whatever dark and hungry god had claimed Mt. Nibel and the surrounding area as its own clearly had it in for him as he was first forced to rescue a fifteen-year-old local girl from Kimara Bugs –she was looking for her <em>cat<em> of all things– then had to delay entering the reactor due to the path being blocked by several dragons. Deciding that enough really was enough, Kirian called Tseng to explain what had happened and hopefully get new and less suicidal orders. Tseng listened patiently before ordering Kirian to retreat to Nibelheim to await further instructions.

However on the way down to the tiny town Kirian and the girl –who had introduced herself as Tifa– were chased by a dragon which destroyed the ropeway ShinRa employees used to reach the reactor. When they finally got back to the village Tifa showed Kirian to the inn where he ordered a hot meal for both of them and had her tell him whether there was another way to reach the reactor and if so, how accessible it was. It turned out there was another route, but he and whoever his reinforcements ended up being would need a local guide. At that point Tseng called back to let him know that Sephiroth and Cloud Strife would be on the investigation team with a few ordinary troopers as backup, hopefully arriving in Nibelheim late the next day. After putting his PHS away Kirian asked Tifa if she would be willing to guide the party up to the reactor.

"Er, well, it's dangerous up there," the girl dithered.

"I'm sure Sephiroth will be able to deal with any monsters you might encounter," Kirian drawled, then watched as hero-worship did its work. Once the girl had agreed the Turk booked himself in at the inn, arranged for a few rooms for the investigation team to use, starting the next night for at least a week, then turned in. There was absolutely nothing else he could be doing around this town anyway.

* * *

><p>Very short, but very important. Kirian makes his second appearance after his debut chasing Hojo and suffering Cloud's driving! Everything is hotting up now and I've had the Nibelheim Incident written up since before I started writing about Kunsel, so I already know exactly how it's all going to go. Mwa ha har...<p> 


	72. Doppler Shift

**Doppler Shift**

Cloud had been in the middle of cleaning the six-piece sword Chaos had given him when his Company PHS buzzed, revealing a message summoning him to Sephiroth's office. The blond swiftly sheathed the six blades separately in the special harness he'd had made, ensured he had to hand the necessary materials to finish the interrupted task and jogged up the stairs to the 51st floor. As soon as he entered the office that had previously been Director Lazard's Sephiroth began explaining the situation to him, starting with the problems the Turks had encountered when trying to enter a Mako reactor that was under investigation after the disappearance of its staff.

"The Company has decided to send SOLDIER to investigate the situation," Sephiroth finished. "You and I will be going."

"Yes, sir." Cloud didn't like it.

"What's wrong?" Sephiroth was much more perceptive of others' emotional states than he had been even a year previously and was better at articulating his own as well.

"Well, you would think there would be more information than that, considering," Cloud said carefully, "and why send the Silver General? Zack or one of the other Firsts would do just as well."

"Zack had been sent to Cosmo Canyon to investigate reports of sightings of Genesis' forces," Sephiroth informed him, "and we are being sent because the squad of Second-classes that went missing near that same reactor were the ones chasing after Lazard."

Lazard. That changed things; the former Director was not allied to the Valentines and seemed to have gotten hold of some of Hollander's old equipment.

"Furthermore," the Silver General continued, "their last report included a description of some strange-looking pods."

"The missing Modeoheim equipment?" Cloud asked.

"Most likely," Sephiroth agreed. "We don't really have a choice in the matter; the President signed the mission off personally."

"Let's get moving then," Cloud said with a smile.

"You need to go down to the SOLDIER floor first to get ready and collect the infantrymen we've been assigned for this mission," Sephiroth told him. "Bring everything you can think of; I'm not sure how long it will be before we can return to Midgar."

"Yes sir!"

It didn't take Cloud long to pack –he rarely ever _unpacked_, a result of his years of living on the road with Vincent– and he soon rounded up the three infantrymen he'd been assigned for this little trip. He recognised the corporal as being the lone survivor of the quartet who'd been on the disastrous Modeoheim mission, but wasn't positive he knew the guy's name. It was only once everything was ready and waiting for Sephiroth to come and take charge that Cloud realised he didn't know which Mako reactor they were investigating; he hoped Vincent never found out he'd been this careless.

"So where are we going, sir?" he asked as his mentor swept into the open space at the centre of the 49th floor to appraise his command.

"Nibelheim," Sephiroth said quietly, turning and gesturing for the troopers to follow him.

Cloud almost tripped over his own feet in shock.

* * *

><p>The morning after their late-night landing in Costa del Sol their little group was issued with a standard military transport truck that the three infantrymen would take in turns to drive, since it was not equipped with the responsive sensitivity needed for SOLDIERs to drive reliably. Cloud immediately made himself as comfortable as possible in the back, removing his fusion blades from their harness and picking up the cleaning process where he'd let off the afternoon before. He still hated trucks but at least they didn't make him sick anymore. Opposite him Sephiroth slumped slightly on the bench, leant his head back against one of the steel supports holding up the canvas top and closed his eyes. The Silver General had made it a habit to feign sleep whenever possible around people who were as awed by his presence as infantrymen inevitably were; it reduced the number of embarrassed accidents, tongue-tied stammering and general incompetence he was forced to endure. The smarter people –generally non-coms– recognised he was ignoring them and letting them get on with their job, which made him pretty popular amongst sergeants throughout the Company.<p>

Cloud just let the truck sounds, whispered conversation of the two troopers sharing the back of the truck with him and his mentor and the jolting of the suspension slide past him as his hands meticulously went over every last square inch of the beautiful sword he had been given by the herald of OMEGA.

First was Tsurugi, the core blade that could be wielded closed or locked open to reveal the openwork centre. The many mechanisms that enabled the blade to open out yet remain sturdy and not waiver in the midst of combat needed constant care and attention to keep them clean and greased.

Next was Yaiba, the hollow blade that doubled as the main edge of the completed sword when all six blades were fully assembled into a whole. Despite its fragile appearance Yaiba was sturdy enough to parry Masamune without gaining so much as a scratch; Cloud had no idea what it was made of and wasn't sure he wanted to ask. Chaos _enjoyed_ traumatising people so much it was better not to just hand him opportunities to do so.

Third were the Kiba, mirror images of each-other with a thick, straight, flat back edge and a square-toothed blade. Together they made up the sword's spine and were the heaviest blades of the set. Tsurugi, Yaiba and Kiba formed the main body of Ragnarök, as Chaos' had told the blond the weapon was called. The four-blade composite looked very much like the Buster sword Zack had inherited from Angeal and was just as large.

The last two blades, Tsume, were more like oversized daggers or Wutai eel knives than actual swords and could be fitted onto the sides of the main sword for added weight or ease of transport. They were the easiest to detach from the assemblage and had hilts that folded out like switchblades. The Tsume were only just half as long as the other four swords, making them very useful in close quarters or in situations requiring control over brute strength. Clous also used one Tsume as a parrying dagger when he wanted to use an asymmetric two-bladed style.

Cloud loved Ragnarök. It was the most perfect weapon he'd ever held and matched him as completely as Masamune did Sephiroth.

Weapons' maintenance complete and Ragnarök fully reassembled, Cloud closed his eyes and let his thoughts carry him away.

* * *

><p>Cloud had been just a few months past his tenth birthday when he left Nibelheim and he hadn't been back since. True, he and Vincent had passed through the Nibel mountains once or twice but they'd never actually gone <em>back<em>. Despite Cloud's mother still living in the tiny mountain village the blond had never felt the urge to return; he wrote to his mother once a month and that was honestly enough. He hadn't seen her in six years but the truth was that, even in the two years before leaving Nibelheim, Vincent had been more of a parent to him than his mother. Not that he blamed her; his mother had only been nineteen when Cloud had been born, had never had a husband as far as he knew and was –looking back– truly, terrifyingly isolated in conservative, backwater Nibelheim. Cloud had hoped his leaving with Vincent would give his mother the incentive to move somewhere less obscure, but it hadn't happened.

After meeting Vincent Cloud had come to enjoy life in Nibelheim. His own isolation meant that nobody noticed when he vanished for hours at a time with his Turk tutor and his mother's own solitary habits prevented her from discovering that her son was out in the mountains watching Nibel Wolves rather than playing tag with his peers.

Cloud liked Nibel Wolves, for all they were the most dangerous monsters native to his hometown. They were smart, social, bigger and heavier than Cloud himself was even now he was a SOLDIER Second-class and they had quite possibly the neatest Ability ever: Howling. The blond had first seen it used aged nine, when Chaos had taken him out for a 'field trip' and they had spied on a pack of Nibel Wolves for the day. About noon the herald of OMEGa had killed one of them so Cloud could see the pack revive it. Chaos had then been forced to kill and re-kill the rest of the pack several times so that he and Cloud could get away, but Cloud hadn't minded the mad dashes and occasional bloody skirmishes that had eaten up most of the afternoon. Instead the blond had begged Chaos to teach him how to do Howling. Chaos had laughed, patted Cloud's bloodstained but still spiky hair and promised to teach him as soon as the blond was old enough and magically strong enough to sustain the ability.

Chaos hadn't yet kept that promise, but Cloud knew it would come eventually. The herald of OMEGA never broke his word.

* * *

><p>Ragnarok is a real FFVII sword, one that Chaos used as the base with which he mixed all the strange summon ingredients to get Cloud's final weapon. Plus the name is significant, so I had to use it!<p>

Anyway, we're off to see the wicked witch now...


	73. Amplitude Death

**Amplitude Death**

Chaos waited patiently for the little spy to return to the apartment he shared with the little wolf, gripping easily to the living room ceiling slightly to the side of the front door. His precious paradox had finally realised the source of the subtle changes her body was undergoing and had a panic attack. It had been a relatively dignified one considering, but the Herald of OMEGA had muscled through her weakened mental defences and assumed control when Galian Beast moved too close to the surface. It would not do for his vessel to lose the unborn child he had gone to such effort in assisting her to acquire, after all.

Of course, being still short-sightedly mortal in her attitudes his vessel's main concern had not been for the child, but that her pregnancy would make it practically impossible to maintain separate the identity of Draculina, ending both the charade that was the imaginary younger Valentine and the one concerning his paradox' true gender. Chaos however knew that neither was at all important anymore: The time for hiding in plain sight was over and within the week events unfolding elsewhere would shake ShinRa –and the rest of the Planet– to its foundations, so such subtle subterfuge was no longer essential.

There remained a possibility that the little spy would take his lover's true identity amiss, but should it come to that Chaos would simply kill the man and be done with it to spare his sweet paradox the heartache. She did love the silly mortal but if the male did not sufficiently reciprocate the sentiment then his vessel was better off without him; she would persevere regardless for the child, after all.

In truth, most of Chaos' attention was caught by the ever-roiling swirl of possibilities centred on Nibelheim which warped the fabric of space-time in beguilingly varied ways and shifted in subtle yet pervasive ways in every passing moment. The storm would soon pass and fade away, but what it left behind would be the determining factors for the coming Age. The upcoming events would echo forwards, influencing outcomes for hundreds of years, perhaps even a millennium. The Herald of OMEGA had barely the faintest inkling of what was to come and found his own inability to read a clear path quite intoxicating. He had guided events to make a number of outcomes more likely –mostly ensuring the survival of individuals who mattered to his vessel– and had killed off a few terminally boring possibilities, but other than that subtle nudging at the edges the tipping point was intact. He looked forward eagerly to learning what unfolded as all the players took their places and the little spy, no matter how dear to his paradox' heart, was rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Events would proceed regardless of whether the mortal lived or died so Chaos did not feel the need to moderate his impulses in the slightest regarding his vessel's lover.

* * *

><p>Kunsel lay flat on his back on the carpet of the apartment he shared with fellow Second-class Cloud Strife and tried to consider his options in a rational manner. Unfortunately for his sanity and composure however, it was very difficult to engage in coherent thought when the harbinger of the end of days was pinning you to the floor, waiting eagerly for you to make a mistake. Not that the WEAPON had said as much, but it didn't really <em>need<em> to; it was fairly obvious to Kunsel that, if he did not respond to the being's revelations in a manner it approved of, the rest of his life would be measured in seconds.

"Can I have some time to think about this?" the SOLDIER ventured. "It is a lot to take in."

"_By all means, little spy; take all the time you need,"_ the entity that had introduced itself as '_Chaos, Herald of OMEGA_' said equably, not moving from its perch on Kunsel's chest. The SOLDIER squirmed slightly, but it neither relinquished its hold on his wrists nor loosened its grip on his knees. Sighing, Kunsel tipped his head back so he didn't have to meet the luminously piercing gold eyes of his captor and tried once more to get his thoughts and feelings in some semblance of order.

So, Draculina had been lying to him: she wasn't Vincent Valentine's daughter but was in fact the Turk herself; who'd ever have thought the Company's prize covert operative was a woman. Kunsel wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. His pride was badly bruised both by the deceit and by his own obliviousness to the blatant falsehoods she'd spun for him, but all his instincts agreed that letting his pride dictate his response in this instance would swiftly prove fatal. Which meant he had to stomp down on his ego and find sensible, convincing reasons to forgive her if he wanted to live to see tomorrow.

"Chaos?" he ventured.

"_Yes, little spy?"_

Kunsel twitched at the utterly despised nickname –he was a loyal SOLDIER _dammit_– but didn't push his luck, asking instead "why exactly did Draculina –Vincent, whatever– lie to me?"

"_My vessel wished to move freely within Midgar and spend time with her son without wasting time evading the little worm's minions,"_ the WEAPON replied easily.

Ah, yes, he couldn't forget that Sephiroth was his lover's _son_ rather than her brother. No wonder the General had tried to kill Kunsel when he found out. "Little worm?"

"_The owner of the Company, little spy."_

Fine, Kunsel could agree with that nickname and accept Draculina's reasoning; she'd wanted to escape her own infamy and had found herself in a difficult situation when their casual friendship had deepened into a relationship. Her not telling him could be set aside as not wanting to put him in a sticky situation with his superiors concerning loyalties or making him a target for the Turks. Fair enough. But there was one more question he really, really needed an answer to:

"Did she lie to me about anything else?"

Chaos cocked its head on one side. _"No, little spy, she did not. Why would she? My sweet paradox wished to bond with her offspring, adapt to her condition and familiarise herself with her environment, such as it is. She also sought to anchor herself in order to prevent… accidents. Deceit would be counter-productive to such and endeavour, would it not?"_

"So she does care about me." This was the sticking point and Kunsel could feel his self-esteem dissolving into a puddle of heated embarrassment even as he choked the words out.

The WEAPON bent down so it was practically nose to nose with the SOLDIER. _"If she did not love you I would not be here, little spy, as your opinion would be superfluous. As it is your reaction is sufficiently important to her for me to take steps to prevent her coming to harm should you take against her,"_ it said sharply with a distinct edge of exasperation. _"Mortals are so foolish and fragile where emotions are concerned. Besides that, I took steps to alter her so she could not conceive unless she loved her mate. Of course she loves you."_ Kunsel heard the unspoken '_Idiot'_ loud and clear. He did not think Chaos would lie to him, as it was not human enough to consider doing so worthwhile. If Draculina really did love him –which seemed to be the case– he could forgive her the rest.

"Then I can and do forgive her for lying to me about her name," he said out loud.

"_Be sure to do so, little spy, or I will make time to visit you one last time,"_ the WEAPON informed him calmly before rippling slightly, its appearance fading into a familiar female face.

"Draculina? Or should I call you Vincent?" Kunsel asked tentatively, eying the fragile expression on her face with trepidation.

"Draculina is fine," his lover told him, releasing his arms and flopping forwards to lie on top of him. "I'm sorry. I didn't like lying to you and I didn't even realise I _could_ get pregnant anymore."

"I honestly don't mind your being pregnant at all," Kusel said sincerely, "but your being about twice my age takes a little getting used to."

"Oh." There was a pause. "I was twenty-seven when Hojo got his hands on me and Chaos was implanted; I haven't aged since. I haven't even _scarred_, Hel take it. So I think I'm likely to still look and feel twenty-seven –physically at least– when the time finally comes for Chaos to return all that lives to the Lifestream."

Kunsel considered the prospect of immortality and wrapped his arms around her. "That sounds like a very raw deal," he commiserated. "On the other hand, I know that come Hades or high water, once she finds out you're pregnant my mother is going to insist I propose, which I would rather like to do anyway. Do you even want to get married, considering I'm going to eventually get old and grey while you stay young and energetic?"

She chuckled into his shirt, a faint note of hysteria trickling into her tone. "Everyone will be jealous of your striking young wife and gossip about how on the Planet you got me to marry you then," she muttered, "despite _my_ being older than _you_."

"Is that a yes?" Kunsel asked hopefully.

"Yes, Zhao Kunsel, I will marry you."

Kunsel kissed her, dizzy with delight and relief. He'd been wanting to pop the question for ages.

* * *

><p>This was insanely difficult to imagine, let alone write. I hope I've done the situation justice.<p>

Amplitude death is what happens when something stops vibrating; I have used it to indicate a metaphorical loss of possibilites.


	74. Optical Decay

**Optical Decay**

The trip to Nibelheim by truck from Coast del Sol took most of the day; Sephiroth would have considered it one of his more tedious journeys if they hadn't been attacked by a dragon less than an hour before they arrived at their destination. Fighting it had been exhilarating and the highlight of his week so far.

Once they arrived in the tiny village Cloud quietly suggested he oversee the troopers unloading the truck and order dinner while the blond got more details about the mission from the Turk who had just walked out of the inn to greet them. Sephiroth acquiesced –his presence would ensure the sleepy infantrymen moved with all due speed– and hovered menacingly while bags and cases were removed from the back of the truck. Once the vehicle was empty Sephiroth followed the troopers into the building and ordered enough food for ten people: as SOLDIERs, Cloud and Sephiroth ate as much as three and four normal people respectively. After informing the owner that he wanted seven peoples' worth of food delivered upstairs by the troopers and ensuring said troopers knew they had been volunteered, Sephiroth departed upstairs to settle into the large private room the Turk had commandeered for him and Cloud to share. As he ascended the staircase he glanced out of the window and noticed that a local girl in a ridiculously skimpy outfit was hanging off his student's arm; it seemed Cloud had been recognised.

* * *

><p>"Who was your admirer, Cloud?" Sephiroth asked once the blond had let himself into their room and propped his sword against the wall behind the table.<p>

"Tifa Lockhart; she's the mayor's daughter," Cloud told him, "and I have a feeling her mother may have been the offspring of one of the mistresses Vi mentioned her father having. Or possibly the result of a fling with one of his numerous lab assistants."

"Oh?" Sephiroth hadn't been aware of the possibility of there being any more relatives he hadn't been told about.

"She's got the Valentine eyes and hair," the blond explained, "plus some of the attitude lurking under the spoiled village princess veneer. You know; that stubborn, I-will-outlast-my-enemies determination."

The Silver General had never heard it described quite like that, though it explained nicely why all his various relatives were as unruly as black chocobos. "Did you know her?" he asked.

Cloud made a face. "It's a small town; I knew who she was and quite a bit about her but we were never friends. I'm the only person in several generations to have actually _left_ Nibelheim and succeeded in making a name for myself, so I expect by tomorrow morning everyone will know I've come back –if they don't already– and will show up so they can gawk and gossip." He paused. "Tell you what, after we get back from the reactor I'll take you to visit my mother. The gossips won't follow us there."

"Whyever not?" it seemed counter-intuitive that those interested in learning about Cloud would not visit his family in an attempt to gain more accurate information.

"My mother," Cloud enunciated a little bitterly, "is not considered respectable. I wish she would agree to move out of this Hel-blessed back-of-beyond, but she won't despite being able to afford to now." The blond shook his head. "Wish she'd at least tell me why."

Sephiroth suspected it had something to do with his student's uncanny resemblance to both Lazard and the President; he'd never actually seen Vice-president Rufus Shinra in person but the pictures revealed a similarly startling likeness. Though, for a most genuinely disconcerting experience one had to picture the ShinRa heir side-by-side with Genesis. If those two ever met it was entirely possible the Planet would implode. He considered voicing his suspicions but at that moment the door opened to reveal the infantrymen with the food, so instead both General and student focused on replenishing their reserves in preparation of the following morning's excursion.

* * *

><p>In the morning Cloud roused the troopers bright and early, handing out ration bars so they could leave promptly instead of having to wait for the innkeeper to serve breakfast. Sephiroth strode out of the inn with time to spare and headed for the pre-arranged rendezvous with their guide –Miss Lockhart the possible Valentine half-cousin– but on arriving in the square he found Cloud staring dazedly at a large building out on the edge of the village.<p>

"Cloud?"

"Seph?" his student said, softly enough that only SOLDIER ears could catch his blatant and unprofessional familiarity, "do you see that massive building?"

"Yes." What was Cloud's point?

"That is the ShinRa mansion. You were born there." Sephiroth instantly picked up everything Cloud _wasn't_ saying about the place and made a vaguely encouraging sound in his throat. His student continued, a frown creasing his brow:

"It burnt down a week before Vi and I left back when I was eleven. I mean, _completely_ burnt down, as in nothing left but drifting ash and holes in the ground." Which made the building's presence highly suspect, Sephiroth deduced. He also wondered how large a part his mother had played in destroying the place.

"It even has the same windows," Cloud muttered a little wildly. "I feel like I'm going mad!"

Sephiroth was about to try and reassure his young friend in some way when Tifa Lockhart dashed up, dressed once more in the ludicrous cowgirl outfit. "Hi Cloud!" she said brightly.

"Teef, didn't the mansion burn down right before I left?" Cloud asked a little desperately.

She smiled at him, eyes bright with hero-worship. "Oh, ShinRa came and rebuilt it two years ago!" she exclaimed chirpily. "It looks exactly the same, doesn't it?"

"Creepy" Cloud muttered, too softly for unenhanced ears to hear. "That explains it, thanks," he replied more normally. "Now we're all here and ready-" he glanced over at the infantrymen, who smartened up sharply "-we can leave."

Tifa Lockhart bit her lip; Sephiroth judged it to be a calculated gesture, considering how she widened her eyes pleadingly at his student.

"Can we have a photo first?" she blurted out. "I mean, you're in SOLDIER now so you might never come back and, well…"

Cloud glanced over at Sephiroth, who silently indicated he had no real objections so long as it didn't take too long.

"Very well then, Miss Lockhart," Cloud told her with a hint of mock-sternness, "but it mustn't take very long. We do have a mission to complete after all."

The girl beamed, abruptly revealing a disturbing likeness to Sephiroth's mother as her red eyes shone.

* * *

><p>Sephiroth let his student deal with most of the monsters they ran into on the trek up Mount Nibel to the reactor; he was developing a headache. It had started in the village as a faint prickling at the top of his spine but by the time they were standing in front of the elderly building the General could feel pulsing spasms shooting up from his lumbar region to nest in his temples. It hadn't yet reached the blinding intensity of a fully fledged SOLDIER migraine, the kind which took days to clear up, but it was definitely heading that way.<p>

Recognising he really wasn't at his best today, Sephiroth let Cloud order the infantrymen to guard the front door and keep an eye on Miss Lockhart then followed his student into the building.

As reported, there were a large number of Mako tanks within the Mako reactor. However they were not the scientific specimen pods that had disappeared from Modeoheim, but the purification tanks that were part and parcel of how every reactor on the Planet functioned. Or in this case, failed to function. After Sephiroth had killed off the mutated dragon that had been nesting in the pipe room he stood guard while Cloud shut off the flow from the leak and poked around trying to find the problem. Half-a-dozen kyuvilduns and two twin-brains later Cloud finally spoke up:

"Well, the good news is that the only broken bit is the filter connecting the purification tanks to the main chamber, which has blocked up," the blond said quietly, "but the bad news is that the damage was at least semi-deliberate: the tanks are all occupied."

Sephiroth's headache jumped up several notches from mild inconvenience to blindingly incapacitating, sending black spots swirling across his vision. He staggered, sheathing Masamune and raising his hands to hover over his temples.

"Seph?" The whisper was gentle as small, calloused hands slipped under his coat to rub his shoulders and neck. Sephiroth concentrated on breathing deeply and evenly as his student applied pressure to the tightly knotted muscles holding up his head, almost moaning in relief when the pain finally faded to a dull, diffuse throbbing.

"Thank-you Cloud," he murmured.

""You really need to take better care of yourself, Seph," his student scolded him _sotto voce_. "Why didn't you tell me you had a migraine this morning? You could have spent the day in bed and headed it off before it got this bad."

"I didn't think it would get this severe so quickly," Sephiroth said, but it sounded feeble even to him. "I wanted to get the mission over with. Besides, I can function through the pain if I have to."

"Well as your student and second-in-command I'd much rather you _didn't_ have to; if you'd told me this morning I could have dragged Kirian along instead. We'd have managed," Cloud grumbled. "You are not perfect Seph and nobody who matters expects you to even attempt to be, no matter what you think." The blond sighed. "Never mind; help me empty the tanks so we can clear out the poor victims and get the purification scheme back online."

Sephiroth dipped his chin carefully in agreement and the two of them set about the grisly business of releasing and mercy-killing the heavily mutated makonoids. They had almost finished when Cloud spun around, cocking his head on one side.

"Some monsters have just ambushed the grunts out front," the blond said shortly as he swiftly turned back to the Mako tank he was working on, opening it and decapitating its occupant in two smooth movements.

"Go. I'll finish up in here and join you," Sephiroth told him. Cloud nodded and ran. The General levered open the last two pods, dealt with their contents then closed both them and the one Cloud had left open before re-opening the input valve. Another stabbing pain behind his right eye threatened to drive him into unconsciousness, but he breathed through it and tottered carefully out of the pipe room towards the sounds of Cloud killing things.

* * *

><p>So, there is no dramatic confrontation with Genesis in the reactor this time, but things nonetheless start going wrong. Namely, Sephiroth developing a killer tension headache. I swear, those things are EVIL!<p> 


	75. Fission

**Fission**

Cloud scrambled up the narrow path towards the Mako reactor, heart pounding somewhere between terror and fury. On their return to Nibelheim after clearing the reactor of monsters Sephiroth had been so unwell Cloud had been forced to help his mentor to bed and inject him with the medication all SOLDIERs carried to treat the rare yet debilitating tension headaches that were the only physical condition made more rather than less severe by the addition of Mako to the body. Sephiroth was a chronic sufferer, which meant that every five months or so he had to spend two to five days lying insensible and drugged to the gills with painkillers and muscle relaxants so his body could process the build-up of chemicals and desensitise the neural pathways without being hampered by the debilitating pain that accompanied the problem.

Thus, Cloud had injected the drugs, had the three troopers set up a rotating guard to deal with any monsters wandering too close to the village and then spent the next six days either training in the room assigned to the grunts or visiting his mother, doing the latter only when Kirian agreed to stand guard over the unconscious General.

As Sephiroth's headaches had recently been decreasing in intensity and frequency, probably due to the decrease in stress and worry that came from having reliable people around him to depend on, Cloud had been worried about this one; it was too early and far too fierce to be natural. Waking on the seventh morning to find one of the infantrymen lying dead in the hall in a puddle of blood, the town in flames and Sephiroth nowhere to be found had simply confirmed his fears. Fearing the worst, the blond had sent the two surviving troopers to rescue what survivors they could find, ordered Kirian to get hold of Tseng and set off up the mountain after his mentor.

Cloud's extrasensory Mako perception enabled him to keep track of everything and everything with Mako in it within a mile of his position when fully extended; tracking Sephiroth was child's play considering he was the largest signature in the area and left a distinctive trail of kills behind him. On reaching the reactor he contracted his field of perception to fifteen meters and slipped inside.

* * *

><p>The blond Second-class hated Mako reactors. They <em>whispered<em> to him, faint murmurs barely on the edge of perception that bypassed his ears completely and trailed teasingly across his brain, hinting at secrets and knowledge that he might gain, if only he paid more attention. Cloud did his best to block them out; paying attention would only take him deeper into the Lifestream and that way lay Mako poisoning and madness. The Nibelheim reactor was the worst he'd ever been in, the whispers actually audible snatches of this and that he had to outright ignore; the problem was likely that the Mako in his blood had come from here, making him more attuned. Walking across the narrow walkway into the heart of the reactor, Cloud did his best to shut out everything not strictly physical. It was much harder than it had been the week before as his instincts and senses were on overdrive trying to find Seph and think of possible scenarios. The Mako in his blood was pumping and it called out to the raw Lifestream swirling beneath him.

Hurrying through the pipe room he slashed through the door at the top of the steps, the door with JENOVA carved above it, Ragnarök making short work of the reinforced steel. Behind the door was a platform suspended above the primary Mako chamber with a damaged cylinder standing in the centre containing a chimerical corpse; JENOVA itself. Sephiroth stood in front of the body, sword drawn, eyes luminous and his feel oddly empty in a manner horribly reminiscent of Fuhito's Ravens.

Without so much as a word the _thing_ using his mentor's body as a puppet lunged forwards, Masamune outreached and aimed for Cloud's heart. The blond ducked, separated one of the Tsume, dashed forwards in a feint then danced back. He'd sparred against his General a thousand times since meeting him and this imposter, this monster was clumsy and slow compared to the real thing. As it attacked him again Cloud sheathed both Ragnarök and the Tsume on his back and danced forward once more, hands reaching forward to touch Sephiroth's skin and dance across his body.

"You desire me, do you not, Cloud?" the thing purred with Sephiroth's voice, tone low and cruel. The blond ignored the taunt. He wasn't flirting; he was emptying the General's pockets and stealing his effects to make subduing his opponent easier.

A few passes later the only weapon his enemy had left was Masamune –Cloud had even stolen his Gold Armlet– and Cloud went on the offensive; drawing one of the Kiba from Ragnarök with one hand and gripping a mastered Contain Materia in the other the young SOLDIER lunged, catching his mentor's blade between Kiba's teeth and twisting the swords away to one side. As he impacted with Sephiroth's chest he prayed the Protect ring on his finger would extend its effects to his mentor considering they now had skin contact and poured all the power he could muster into casting Flare towards the cylinder behind the General, right at JENOVA.

The world went white even through screwed up eyelids buried in his mentor's chest and Sephiroth _screamed_. The agonising sound went on and on until Cloud ran out of MP and the Spell died. Only then did the scream choke off, leaving behind a ringing, boiling silence as the General collapsed, slate-grey wings exploding from his back to flop on the ground either side of him. The blond caught his mentor clumsily, wrapping the hand with the Materia clutched in it around the taller man's waist and lowering him to his knees, revealing the view of the space behind the General where JENOVA had been.

There was nothing left in the shattered, blackened cylinder but ash.

* * *

><p>Cloud slumped forwards in relief, pocketed his Materia, re-attached Tsume and Kiba to Ragnarök then moved over to his right to pick up Masamune. JENOVA was dead; hopefully Sephiroth would recover.<p>

A gunshot rang out behind him. Cloud spun just in time to see professor Hojo lower a smoking handgun –a Quicksilver his Turk-trained hindbrain noted– then turned again to see Sephiroth topple forwards to sprawl across the platform, the back of his head a bloody mess. The base of the cylinder behind the General had a bullet embedded in it and was spattered with skull fragments and brain matter.

Cloud was distantly aware that beyond the roaring in his ears and the rising green in his vision professor Hojo was saying something –something about failure and high Mako thresholds and specimens– but he really did not care. Sephiroth was dead. Hojo had killed bright, battered, beautiful Sephiroth, his SOLDIER mentor and best friend; his foster-father's son.

All of Cloud's horror, grief, rage and adrenaline rose and coalesced within him as he smoothly drew the immensely heavy six-piece blade Chaos had given him, the fusion blade Ragnarök that even Zack considered to be rather heavy and unwieldy. Hojo had _killed Sephiroth_.

Cloud would kill Hojo.

Blue power coalesced around the enraged Second-class, merging with the dancing streams of green rising from the Mako pooling far below as he lunged forwards, blade disassembling and the pieces hovering in a circle around the murderous scientist. Uncaring of the consequences and pouring his very soul into every blow, Cloud let the rising power guide him as he attacked, cutting through the professor again and again as he moved too quickly for the man to follow.

When the power retreated the blond was left standing over a small mound of diced flesh within a circle of blades embedded in the gantry, his uniform heavily splattered with gore and facing a squad of shaking infantrymen staring up from the pipe room through the broken-down door. Ignoring them Cloud turned on his heel, Tsurugi hanging negligently from his right hand, and dashed over to Sephiroth's side, gently turning the larger man over on his back.

Blank aqua eyes with ovoid pupils stared sightlessly upwards below a hole placed in the centre of the General's forehead.

Sephiroth was dead.

Dead.

_Dead._

_Brother lost._

_Pack broken._

_**Dead!**_

* * *

><p>The strain of the past hour's events combined with the ridiculously high Mako levels building in Cloud's body from the Mako vapour being absorbed though his skin set off a chemical reaction in one of the little 'gift packages' Chaos had spent years carefully grafting into his favourite mortal's genetic code. The reaction spread, flipping a switch in his brain and embedding a new set of instincts and drives into the teen's psyche.<p>

Cloud Strife threw back his head and _Howled_. From outside the reactor came a dozen answering Howls. The blond Howled again, heedless of the scrambling infantrymen fleeing for the exit and the sounds of unprepared troopers meeting hunting Nibel wolves in an enclosed area, wild grief rising and falling as he decried the death of his pack-brother.

When Cloud had been nine, the Herald of OMEGA had promised to teach him Howling someday. As the six mostly-grown Nibel wolves slunk into the room to find their new pack-alpha and his fallen pack-brother, the messy wound on the back of Sephiroth's head closed and he breathed in, wings snapping back into his body and out of sight. Cloud's head jerked over and he stared as his General's eyelids fluttered closed, his breath evening out.

The blond threw his head back to howl again, this time in joy and triumph:

_Pack-brother __**lives**__!_

The other wolves joined in the chorus, celebrating the return of life snatched from the jaws of death. Cloud rushed forwards to the pile of flesh that had been professor Hojo and yanked his bloodstained swords out of the gantry, quickly sheathing them in their individual harnesses across his back. Then he slipped Masamune away into Sephiroth's pack, slung the unconscious General over his shoulder and loped out of the reactor, the wolves behind him.

_Protect pack._

Cloud had no idea that his eye-sockets were full of glowing Mako green from edge to edge or that the combination of blood spatter, escort and oddly lupine gait made him look utterly feral. He probably wouldn't have cared, either: his pack-brother-alpha was injured and needed protection and his newfound pack-siblings needed food and rest.

Heedless to the Turk staring at him from further down the path Cloud vanished up the mountainside, Sephiroth hanging limply over his left shoulder and a pack of wolves at his heels.

* * *

><p>The Nibelheim Incident, in all its terrible glory. I wrote this months and months ago, just before I wrote Kunsel meeting Vincent, so I knew what I was working towards. Mwa ha har! I trust this satisfies my readers' appetites; remember to review!<p>

Edit: Muddled up Tsume and Kiba; the Kiba are the big ones. All fixed now.


	76. Breakdown

**Breakdown**

Kirian had hated this assignment from the very beginning; Nibelheim in late autumn was stupidly cold and lacked anything even slightly civilised. At least the company had been decent: Cloud Strife had been part of the investigation team sent by the Company and was about as good a conversationalist as was possible for someone who wasn't a Turk. Despite Nibelheim being Strife's hometown the blond had no particular fondness for it and was happy to commiserate with the gunman regarding the lack of amenities, dreadful weather and painfully backward locals. Kirian understood perfectly why the blond had got out as soon as he could.

The Turk had stayed in the inn while Strife and the General had cleared out the reactor, but when on their return Sephiroth had been medically incapacitated he had assisted the blond Second-class in protecting his mentor throughout the following week. Cloud was as close to a Turk as a person could get without putting on the blue suit and the General was a ShinRa asset. Well, that was the official reason Tseng had given him; Kirian had heard the rumours that Sephiroth was related to Vincent Valentine and suspected there was more truth in them than not.

Of course, today everything had gone to Hel: Sephiroth had got up before sunrise, ghosted out of the inn and set the town on fire before heading up to the reactor. Cloud had told Kirian to call Tseng and help the two surviving infantrymen rescue the civilians, then hared off up the mountain after the General. Kirian had called Tseng and been ordered to follow after the two SOLDIERs, which he had done at normal human speed as opposed to the Mako-fueled dash only SOLDIERs could achieve. He'd just arrived at the reactor when Strife had come out, Sephiroth slung over his shoulder, the silver hair on the back of the General's head matted with blood and thicker things.

Kirian was a shooter; he'd seen that kind of wound countless times, frequently on his targets: someone had shot Sephiroth in the head at close range. Judging by the quantity of vibrant red spatter on Strife's uniform and the gore dripping from the swords the Second-class had in his weapons' harness, the General's death had been avenged. Then Kirian spotted the wolves following the SOLDIER, the wild, empty look on Cloud's face and the opaque, luminous green glow that filled the blond's eye-sockets.

Cloud Strife, SOLDIER Second-class, had snapped. The death of his mentor had sent the teenager completely off his rocker. He'd read reports of this kind of thing happening, usually with those more Mako-sensitive SOLDIERs who suffered a severe trauma. Strife was on the sensitive end of the spectrum and had just seen the General murdered.

The Turk watched the blond vanish off up the mountainside, a small pack of Nibel wolves at his heels like trained dogs, then flipped open his PHS. He needed to tell Tseng that the most promising SOLDIER in the program had gone feral and that the General had been murdered.

On that note, who the hell would shoot Sephiroth?

* * *

><p>Three hours later, when Tseng arrived in a helicopter with reinforcements that included SOLDIER First-class Zack Fair, Kirian knew exactly who had shot Sephiroth. Damn Hojo. At least the man was dead now;cloud had reduced the sociopath professor to so much diced meat. The bullet embedded in a support and the scattered skull fragments with bits of silver-haired scalp attached confirmed Sephiroth's demise. The burnt-out cylinder was puzzling, but probably connected to whatever Hojo had been doing up here in the first place.<p>

Kirian waited outside the reactor for the forensic team to finish, standing guard with the rest of his colleagues who had been called on.

"Hojo shot Sephiroth and Cloud killed Hojo," Hilary muttered, nunchaku swinging absently as his blond curls were ruffled by the stinging breeze, "but where do the wolves come in? They ripped the troopers apart but Cloud was just fine. Yes, SOLDIERs do occasionally go completely bat-shit insane but I've never heard of them getting adopted by the local wildlife. So what are we missing?"

There was a chuckling chorus from above. The Turks scattered, drawing weapons and glancing around for the intruder until Tseng stepped out of the reactor with a hand raised, calling for calm.

"Chaos, show yourself."

A bat-winged, red-cloaked seven-foot humanoid with glowing golden eyes dropped out of nowhere onto a rocky outcrop and grinned toothily at Tseng, revealing more canine teeth than a normal mouth should ever contain. _"Fenrir has risen, little mask; the wolf is ascendant. Odin's bane walks the Planet once more, bound by six impossible things until the ending of the world."_

"What is Fenrir?" Tseng demanded, face stern but manner polite.

"_What is Materia, masklet?"_

"Materia is crystallised Mako," Zack Fair said shortly, emerging from the reactor to scowl at the intruder. "Chaos, where the hell is Cloud?"

"_Patience, little hound. What is Mako?"_

"Mako is liquid Lifestream, Chaos," the First-class said impatiently. "Now: Where. Is. Cloud?"

"_So the Lifestream is the souls and memories of the dead, little hound. So if Materia is memories is crystal form, what are summons?"_

Zack froze, eyes wide, as did the listening Turks. "Summons are souls?" the First-class asked softly.

"_Indeed, little hound; __m__ighty souls too powerful to simply fade into obscurity. Heroes and gods and demons granted a semblance of life. Now, little hound, little mask, what do you suppose would occur should Mako that contained the potential to become a summoning Materia be injected into a mortal SOLDIER?"_

Tseng caught on first. "Cloud has been possessed by a summons, become like you and gained human form."

"_Almost, little mask. The little wolf has become Fenrir and the Wolf has become the Hero. Both are one in body and spirit, protector and destroyer in a single flesh and of one mind; a melding rather than an imprisonment__ or possession. The wolves serve him because they recognise him: Fenrir Odin-slayer, father of wolves, killer of gods, son of the Trickster who heralded the end, as I was then before Ragnarök when I walked the Planet within my own flesh."_ Chaos grinned, the expression of sheer glee altogether disconcerting. _"Strife has always been my favourite mortal. So aptly named and so favoured by Gaia that I only needed to help the process on a little bit. Fear not; the man is stronger-willed than the wolf, __so __it is __the warrior __who will return. He will come f__or vengeance over the death of the little dragon, if for nothing else."_

"But Hojo's dead already," Hilary pointed out.

Chaos chuckled. _"Who aided and abetted? Who turned a blind eye? Who provided the means and the funds? My little wolf-warrior will show no mercy to those who were party to the little madman's perversions. Let ShinRa tremble, for the God-slayer walks the Planet once more and his silken bonds are loosed!"_ The leathery-winged quasi-summon cackled like a chorus of lunatics and shot into the air, vanishing into the mist.

"Damn," Tseng swore into the stunned silence. "Zack, return to ShinRa and order a recall to all SOLDIERs. Hilary, supervise the cleanup here. We need to leave Nibelheim before whatever Strife is now decides that our following orders from the President is as good a reason as any to kill us. Further investigations can wait until things have settled down again."

Kirian sighed, re-holstering his two handguns as he hurried over to the helicopter. He really, really hated this mission.

* * *

><p>Tadaaa! Chaos' hand is revealed, as is a little of his background. He also takes the opportunity to strike terror into the heart of mortals, but who could resist panicking the Turks?<p> 


	77. Ternary Fission

**Ternary Fission**

Chaos soared easily on the fast-moving air currents high in the planet's atmosphere, riding the edge of the jet stream that wriggled its way around the Planet so as to reach the smelly and ridiculous city of Midgar faster than any mortal contraption could ever achieve. Both his own indignity and the suffering of his sweet paradox had been avenged by the little wolf, who would soon become his son in more than just name. However vengeance was only the beginning of Chaos' scheming and now that the shatterpoint had passed the Herald of OMEGA was starting to see once more how the patterns of the future would unravel. They were still highly unstable of course, twisting and changing in the wake of what had occurred in Nibelheim, a pathetic little town built on the long-forgotten remains of what had once been his daughter's home.

He could however see enough of what-would-be to know that his avatar needed to be the first person to take advantage of the little madman's death and raid the delusional mortal's private laboratory in the ShinRa building. Chaos couldn't yet make out _why_ it was so important –too much interference floating about– but the most entertaining and diverse long-term projections spiralled out of the repercussions of her doing so, so who was he to make life less interesting than might otherwise be the case?

Of course his little paradox was with child, which meant he had to be more careful than was his wont due to her increasing fragility, but she was becoming delightfully volatile and ever more proactive in defending herself as an instinctive counter to that vulnerability which Chaos found simply delightful. The Herald of OMEGA was utterly delighted with his good fortune in being bound to such an accommodating vessel: she was just so charmingly and inventively destructive!

* * *

><p>Hojo's private laboratories were an annex of the ShinRa Headquarters suspended high above the plate, clamped onto the side of the building like a particularly malevolent leech and only accessible through the 68th floor. Or, of course, the windows, but most architects and security professionals didn't consider windows on the 68th floor to be a significant security risk. These people clearly had very little experience with either SOLDIERs or summons, which Vincent found incredibly ironic considering. The easiest route through Headquarters into Hojo's secret lab was to be a test subject; the second easiest route was to climb down the outside of the building from the helipad on the roof. Chaos, having wings and not needing to deal with the limitations created by being limited to travel over solid surfaces, simply landed lightly on the roof of the annex.<p>

Once grounded the Herald of OMEGA immediately ceded control to his avatar, his much larger form fading away into nothing, drifting apart like a shredded cocoon of smoke and mako droplets to reveal her own much smaller body standing where he had been. Since her pregnancy had come to her attention Chaos had taken to assuming his own physical form in a totally new manner, wrapping himself around her like a cloak rather than stretching her from the inside to accommodate his much greater mass. It was all the proof she was going to get that he cared about her and her unborn child more than he was ever likely to admit –Vincent had long since given up speaking in absolutes; where Chaos was involved nothing was impossible– but it was more than enough. The WEAPON which dwelt within her had never failed to express his fondness for her destructive tendencies but this new behaviour indicated a much more profound caring. It was slightly reassuring. It would have been more reassuring were it not for the profoundly inhuman ways in which Chaos generally expressed his attachment.

Getting into the laboratory was almost stupidly easy, probably because everybody was too terrified of the recently-late doctor to ever try and invade his private playground. All Vincent had to do was exert a little pressure on the steel frame of the window to the very dead madman's private office and the pane of reinforced glass popped right out, falling inwards onto the carpet without even cracking. Sliding into the room without so much as a whisper of rustling fabric –her garments were not actually made of cloth no matter what they _looked_ like– Vincent set about thoroughly ransacking the first stop on her little sabotage tour. Experience had taught her that it was impossible to steal too much data on the recently-deceased lunatic's projects, especially when you intended to deal with them personally in the not-too-distant future. Vincent wanted all the data she could get on what had been done to Cloud and what was being done to the other twelve subjects that were all that remained of the original twenty-eight that had made up Hojo's 'project pool' nearly two years previously. The Turk was not surprised by the attrition rate: the mad scientist had made a habit of testing his various victims to destruction. What she was wary of was the use of language in some of the reports she'd read while chasing up what had been done to Cloud as much as was possible considering Hojo's main computer –the computer she was now ruthlessly stripping bare of any and all data– was not connected to the main ShinRa network. Said terminology had suggested that the so-called 'cell cultures' might not in fact be what a normal, sane person would call cell cultures. They might have started out that way, but Vincent knew better than most that Hojo had no qualms about cross-species genetic manipulation. Among other things.

Having completely drained the computer of its contents, cracked the hidden safe and pilfered its contents, raided the bookshelves and flicked through every single page of material in search of notes and references, pocketed all the loose paperwork and emptied the four hidden caches she had found –if there were more she couldn't locate them– Vincent decided to leave the office and venture into the main laboratory, making a beeline for the Specimen Containment Units. Hojo's nost recent notes claimed he had sorted his subjects according to their reactions to his most recent bout of tests, with an addendum stating how fascinating it was that there were specimens of each of the three 'ranks' in each group.

Cracking the electronic lock with casual ease, Vincent stepped into the corridor that ran the length of the containment block and stopped dead, horror and fury rooting her to the spot.

_I swear I did not know of this, little paradox,_ Chaos snarled within her mind, _or I would have urged you to investigate sooner. How dare he!_

The 'cell cultures' were children. _Her_ children. She could see herself –though it would be more accurate to say she could see Sephiroth since they were technically born of genetic samples taken from her son– in every single face, devastatingly vacant or brutally twisted though most of them were.

Vincent breathed deeply, letting her own anger wash through her and the fury of tenant flow out of her. She could not act rashly no matter how enraged she was. Chaos' fury at the violation of her kin was accompanied by a thin trickle of self-recrimination, as though the Herald of OMEGA felt he should have anticipated this wholly unexpected occurrence. Setting that mystery aside for later, Vincent confronted the bleak situation before her, letting her eyes and other senses flit from cell to cell and study those contained within.

The first cell on her left contained three children, two male and one female, their physical appearance making them appear to be aged five, eight and twelve. All three were completely catatonic, vacant eyes staring unblinkingly into space. Her less human senses told her all three were no more than empty shells; their souls had long since fled into the Lifestream, never to return.

The second cell held three more children, aged similarly to the first. However in this cell the older boy and girl were acting much as the feral Deepgrounders had and cowering in the corner away from the third child, the four-year-old. Vincent shivered as wide, virulent green eyes studied her with the same thoughtful sociopathy that characterised Hellmasker; killing that little boy would be more for the benefit of the many than the child's own, though the Turk knew that of all her inmates Hellmasker was the loneliest. Death Gigas was too stupid to be lonely and Galian Beast considered her and her family to be pack. Hellmasker on the other hand was so utterly isolated he didn't even realise he was lonely. Saving this child that experience would be merciful, but Vincent knew that even if it were not she still would not unleash this particular little boy on the world.

The third cell held the obviously insane: two girls and a boy, all very clearly broken so far beyond repair that sanity was no more than a fever dream. The two girls, one older and one younger, where huddled in separate corners and muttering in voices that constantly shifted in pitch and psychic feel: multiple personality disorders several orders of magnitude beyond Vincent's own. The rogue Turk doubted any single personality facet was dominant for more than a few seconds at a time. The eight-year-old boy sat in the very centre of the cell, giggling and sobbing by turns as he waved his hands around, tracing patterns in the air only he could see. For these three death would be a welcome release.

The fourth cell held the sane and aware. Well, mostly sane and aware; Vincent had no doubt that they had been permanently damaged by their experiences here regardless. Three boys, appearing to be aged seven, nine and twelve. All three watched her warily through old, jaded eyes of purest mako green. The data sheet attached to their cell door proclaimed them to be specimens L, K and Y of the first, second and third ranks respectively. The first rank had aged the fasted, the second the slowest and the third rank contained most of the females. There had been only two female in the first rank and none at all in the second, but the third rank had produced only three males, of whom Y was the only survivor.

Vincent surveyed the corridor again, this time reaching out to the ever so subtle fluttering of unstable Chaos energy within every child present, the cause of their rapid aging and source of the variety of genders and appearances in what were technically clones of her eldest son. The children who she intended to take with her would need that energy stabilising or else they would continue to age at an accelerated rate and die prematurely; every child present was only a few months past two years old no matter what they looked like.

Hopefully the three survivors at the end would be willing to come with her even after seeing her put their unsalvageable siblings out of their misery.

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><p>Yes it really has been ages but this was a very, very difficult chapter. There will be two, possibly three more then this story will end. Hopefully my muse will allow me to create a sequel, but no promises however much I'd like to make them.<p> 


	78. Isotopes

**Isotopes**

Yazoo watched curiously as the oddly dressed stranger stepped beyond the threshold of the containment block and tapped the key code into the lock outside the cell containing the latest of her siblings to succumb to violent insanity as a result of the latest round of experiments they'd been put through. Yazoo had see all the reactions before: catatonia, mental fracturing, murderous violence and spontaneous mutation were the most common ones and all of them led to the afflicting specimen being disposed of after Father had investigated their condition as thoroughly as he chose to. Quiet murderousness did get noticed a lot less quickly than uncontrollable violence, but the quietly murderous –the latest example being Ciar– all attacked Father sooner or later and were put down after being extensively punished.

Ciar stared unblinkingly at the stranger in red and black as they opened the door of the transparent-walled cell and dropped to one knee in front of the small boy. Ciar had been Kadaj's friend until the change had consumed him and even Kadaj had to recognise that his brother wasn't who he used to be, which was why Kadaj was pressing himself into Loz's side and letting himself be hugged. Yazoo hoped losing Ciar didn't make Kadaj go crazy; second-rank specimens were all a bit more fragile mentally than the first- or third-rank ones. Faz in the cell opposite showed this clearly, giggling with tears dripping down his cheeks as he waved his hands around like a baby. Kadaj had never liked Faz, saying the bigger boy was soft in the head, but that softness hadn't protected the boy from being shattered.

Yazoo was brought back down to earth from her musings by a quiet but very final snapping sound and Kadaj gasping. Blinking, she focused on what was going on outside her own head and saw Ciar's body collapse sideways, head turned all the way around on his neck and his eyes dull. He was dead. It was a much nicer death than Father had ever given any of their other siblings though, so Yazoo decided that she liked this stranger. That fondness increased as they dispatched Ehan and Xin with equal efficiency. Her now-dead brother and sister probably hadn't felt a thing, it had been that quick. The stranger left the cell as all three bodies evaporated into green mist and went to open the one Faz was in with Paka and Oris. Neither girl was even as aware of their surroundings as Faz was; Yazoo had noticed that the girls were more likely to get lost in their own heads or turn into a variety of strange monsters than the boys were, which was a little worrying but there wasn't anything she could do about being a girl. Besides, the boys tended to go catatonic or feral more so it evened out. Anyway Yazoo _was_ a girl, no matter what Father said and what shape her body was. _All_ the third-rankers had been girls and that Yazoo and the other two had been born the wrong shape had just been one of those things, like the food being boring mush and the cells never being big enough to play tag in.

Yazoo didn't bother to watch what the stranger did after disposing of Oris; it was pretty clear that they were getting rid of all the specimens who were broken in the head. Father would probably be angry at not getting to take them apart to find out what exactly had gone wrong but Yazoo didn't like Father enough to care. None of her siblings had liked Father much after Siri died. Besides, he couldn't blame _her_ because she was locked in her cell. She deduced the stranger wasn't going to kill her, Loz and Kadaj because if they _had_ been going to they'd have started with her cell. Yazoo was good at spotting patterns and the stranger had started with the cell containing the most aware of their intended victims then worked their way down. So instead of watching the deaths of Malv, Adad and Zabar she turned to catch her bigger brother's eye. Loz couldn't do complex thinking anymore after he'd taken responsibility for one of Kadaj's accidents and Father had damaged him, but he still had the best instincts out of the three of them.

Loz had been comforting Kadaj and was still petting their little brother's hair, but he was also watching the stranger avidly.

"Nii-chan?" Yazoo murmured. Loz turned and beamed at her:

"It's Mother!" Loz said eagerly. "Mother's come for us!"

Yazoo blinked, glanced down at Kadaj –who seemed equally startled by their brother's declaration– then over at the person Loz said was 'Mother'. Father had always said they would reunite with Mother someday but Father was a bit funny in the head and he felt wrong, so Yazoo had stopped believing him shortly after getting big enough to understand what the lab assistants were saying.

But Loz was right: the stranger had the same feel that all their siblings had, an inner buzz Father and the assistants didn't and in fact seemed completely oblivious to. The buzz that sometimes sang in their dreams, gave them new words to play with and always gobbled up all the poison that Father injected in them.

"Hello Mother!" Loz said brightly as the stranger opened their cell. Now she was closer Yazoo could see that yes, the stranger was a woman. She was pretty too. If this was their mother then was Yazoo going to be that pretty once she was grown?

Mother blinked. "Hello boys."

Yazoo glared. "I'm a _girl_, Mother!" Mother should know that, even if Father didn't!

Mother's eyes went completely golden for an instant as her buzz briefly got a whole lot louder before settling down again. "So you are. We'll have to sort your body out before it tries to go through puberty."

Having her gender acknowledged completely delighted Yazoo and even though she should probably be asking Mother more questions she didn't want to. Mother was going to fix her!

"Why didn't you come sooner?" Kadaj demanded, wriggling out of Loz' grip.

"I didn't know you were here," Mother said simply.

Kadak frowned, lower lip poking out. "But Father talked about you all the time!"

Mother's face stilled in a way that made Yazoo feel nervous, one eyebrow climbing up her forehead. "Father?"

Yazoo stared. She wasn't the only one; Mother didn't know who Father was? "Father is Professor H-"

"He is _not_ your father!" Mother snapped, dark and dangerous feelings pouring off her like when Beri had turned into a monster and eaten half of Watab. Loz cringed fearfully, tears welling up and Kadaj went white. "He stole you from me!"

"Fa- er, the Professor stole us?" Kadaj repeated as the atmosphere calmed down and Mother stopped feeling so scary. "Who _is_ our real father then?"

Mother paused head tilted to one side, then her inner buzz expanded within her, pouring out through her skin and wrapping around her until she wasn't there anymore and the buzz was fully manifested.

"I am your sire," said the very large grey-skinned, golden-eyed person whose voice was like lots of people talking at once. "I am Chaos, Herald of OMEGA and you hold my essence within you."

So _that_ was what the buzz was! It was their inheritance from Father! Which had to be why they had all looked like Mother and their big brother Sephiroth, who the Professor had talked about sometimes. Yazoo smiled up at her father, who she already liked miles more than the Professor. The buzz was kind and looked after them! The Professor had always felt icky anyway. "Where are we going?" She asked.

Father chuckled. "We will take you home, little seeds, then we shall mend you and after that, well. We will decide what must be done and what would simply be amusing."

Loz brightened, his tears forgotten. "We get to go outside, Father?"

"Of course," Father said in superior tones. "Come, little seeds." He turned, ducking his head as he walked out of the cell so as not to collide with the doorframe. All three surviving siblings quickly got to their feet and followed.

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><p>Rejoice! My muse cooperated and relinquished another chapter! I hope my readers like my portrayal of the Remnants. Who are a different kind of remnants in my fic.<p> 


	79. Weak Interaction

**Weak Interaction**

Sephiroth wanted to scream in frustration. He also wanted to swear a blue streak using all those Wutai curses he'd picked up during the war and kill someone, preferably the entire Shin-Ra Science Department. However none of those things were possible right now: he couldn't move a muscle. Couldn't twitch a finger, couldn't even open his eyes. He was imprisoned within his own body and completely at the mercy of his caretaker.

Fortunately his caretaker was Cloud. Less fortunately, Cloud definitely was not himself.

The Silver General had absolutely zero voluntary muscle control, but that didn't mean his brain had stopped working and he was perfectly capable of sensing the Mako signatures of nearby monsters and SOLDIERs. Cloud felt distinctly different to how he used to: much wilder for one, much stronger and more _intense_ for another which suggested the levels of Mako in his blood had somehow increased. There was also nothing wrong with Sephiroth's ears and what he could hear supported the evidence of his other senses, such as his sense of touch and perception of taste and smell. The combination of hearing, touch, smell and the less easily defined Mako-sense had over the past few weeks given him a good idea of what was going on around him, but there wasn't a single thing he could _do_ about _any_ of it! It was all so frustrating!

Helpless immobility also meant he had no way of escaping his own thoughts. All his life he had sought strength to fill the aching void within his heart, to protect himself as best he could from Hojo's displeasure and to validate his existence through surpassing the expectations of others. Now however his strength was beyond his grasp and he had been reduced to dead weight, a burden on his student. Vi had insisted she would always love him, but Sephiroth was terrified of how she'd react when she found out he was completely paralysed. Or worse, how she'd react to the rampage he'd been dragged on through Nibelheim.

Sephiroth felt terrible about what had happened in the village. He'd killed helpless civilians, set the town on fire and attacked his student. Fortunately Cloud had been able to take advantage of the fact that the, the _thing_ controlling his body didn't think like a SOLDIER and had been arrogant enough to believe it was the focus of his student's attention.

Looking back at events with a dispassionate eye, Sephiroth was certain the disgusting monstrosity floating in that cylinder had been JENOVA, the Calamity itself. Despite Chaos' actions to denature the J-cells and genetic material in Sephiroth's body, the Herald of OMEGA had not considered it appropriate to purge them from his system; the Calamity had been part of him from before he was born so removing it would kill him. However Chaos' alterations had meant that, in time, his body would gradually be able to replace the alien parasite with structures that carried out the same functions without making him vulnerable to mind control.

Unfortunately for Sephiroth, Cloud and all of Nibelheim, the process was a slow one that the Silver General was only two years into. However it seemed that having been used as a puppet and forced to watch as his body slew innocents and children –just like he had in Wutai and sworn to never do again– had apparently kicked the biological systems purging the JENOVA infection into overdrive. Sephiroth knew his body was very busy despite his lack of conscious control over it: he could feel his elevated heartbeat, see the greenish glow illuminating the inside of his eyelids, feel the deep ache in his muscles indicating elevated activity levels. Were it not for Cloud's efforts to keep him clean and well-fed Sephiroth knew he'd be emaciated and filthy by now, his body recklessly burning his reserves to purge the invader from his cells and oozing contaminated slime from every orifice. He was even sweating out some kind of stinging fluid that made his brain itch for a hot shower with real soap.

More fortunately, Cloud found the various fluids just as offensive as Sephiroth did: his apprentice bathed him every morning and evening and cleared up the messes a lack of voluntary muscle control ensured the silver-haired SOLDIER couldn't help making almost as soon as they happened. It was still the most humiliating and demeaning experience of Sephiroth's life though.

When not wallowing in the indignity of his own helplessness, Sephiroth worried about Cloud. Cloud was most certainly not the same as he had been before Nibelheim and Sephiroth was fairly certain that was his fault. Shock did strange things to SOLDIERs whose Mako sensitivity was in the upper half of the scale and Cloud Strife was firmly in the middle of the upper quartile. That Cloud had been placed under severe stress by the situation was obvious: the short blond was Sephiroth's closest friend as well as his student and the younger SOLDIER worried about him even on normal days. Nibelheim had not been remotely normal.

Then there was the fact that Sephiroth was fairly certain he'd killed his student's mother while under JENOVA's control. Despite Cloud clearly not understanding why his mother refused to leave Nibelheim, Sephiroth was certain the teenager did not love her any less for her obstinacy despite not having seen her since he was eight or so. Sephiroth didn't even know whether or not Cloud realised his mother was dead and was _not_ enjoying the uncertainty.

* * *

><p><em>Fen-Wolf hunts with Pack. <em>

_Pack kills. _

_Pack feeds. _

_Pack hunts for sick Brother. _

_Pack kills. _

_Fen-Wolf gorges. _

_Fen-Wolf returns to Den. _

_Fen-Wolf regurgitates meat for Brother. _

_Fen-Wolf feeds Brother. _

_Fen-Wolf cleans Brother._

_Pack returns._

_Pack sleeps around Brother._

_Fen-Wolf sleeps._

_Fen-Wolf dreams of Pack-Mother, who carries Father within herself._

_Fen-Wolf dreams of Brother, the Great Serpent, and Sister, the Cold One. _

_Fen-Wolf dreams of Golden-Wolf, in whose body he runs and who Fen-Wolf will someday become one with. Fen-Wolf likes Golden-Wolf, who is brother-in-soul._

_Fen-Wolf dreams of death. Golden-Wolf's dam is dead: the Pack sang for her loss the night after they found the Den._

_The Calamity is not dead._

_Fen-Wolf dreams of hunting._

* * *

><p>And that's the end! If my muse obliges I may write a sequel or two to continue the storyline, but if not I'm quite happy with this ending here.<p> 


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